Flame to pass by Bataclan, Shoah Memorial, Paris mayor says

The Olympic flame will pass by the site of the 2015 Islamist attack on the Bataclan concert hall as well as the Shoah Memorial as it makes its way through Paris in July ahead of the 2024 summer Games, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Tuesday.

“This torch is a message of peace, a message of friendship between peoples, which is all the stronger at a time when the world is in such bad shape,” Hidalgo told France 2 TV.

She was speaking from Olympia, Greece, birthplace of the Games, where the flame was being lit before being taken to Marseille on May 8 and then gradually making its way to Paris ahead of the July 26 opening ceremony.

In Paris, torch bearers will also pass historic landmarks such the Place de la Concorde square and the National Assembly and through working-class neighborhoods, including Belleville or Porte de la Chapelle in the east and in the north, Hidalgo said.

The Paris city hall, which is hosting the flame on July 14 when France celebrates Bastille Day, will stay open all night so that “visitors and Parisians can see this symbol of fraternal transmission across the planet” she added.

Paris’ Shoah Memorial is dedicated to Jewish history during the Second World War.

On November 13, 2015, a group of Islamist gunmen targeted the Bataclan music hall, as well as bars, restaurants and the Stade de France sports stadium, killing a total of 130 people.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he would strive to obtain an Olympics truce, adding he had the Middle East conflict in mind, as well as the war in Ukraine and Sudan. [Reuters]