The China Mail - Paris Olympics chief hails 'crazy' torch relay route

From Mont Saint Michel to the French Caribbean to the Chateau de Versailles, the 80-day relay will be a French tourism chief's dream.

"This is the culmination of an enormous team effort over the past year and a half," said Estanguet, a three-time Olympic canoeing champion, at the unveiling of the route.

"The route I find crazy, I find it unbelievable."

Estanguet's remarks came at the end of a difficult week when police raided the organisers' offices in a probe focusing on the awarding of contracts.

Indeed the announcement of the route had been preceded by news that police had searched the homes of two high-ranking officials in the organising committee -- Etienne Thobois, the Chief Executive Officer of Paris 2024, and Edouard Donnelly, the executive director of operations.

French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said it had not been "an easy moment for the (organising committee's) teams, obviously".

The torch will be lit in Olympia in Greece, then brought by boat to the southern French port of Marseille on May 8 and will pass through 400 towns before arriving in Paris on July 26 for the opening ceremony.

The organisers have suffered a fraught few days after police raided the headquarters of the organising committee and the offices of Solideo, the body in charge of the Olympic construction sites.

They followed that up with another search on Wednesday, this time of Keneo, a Paris-based consulting firm specialising in sport that was founded by Thobois and Donnelly.

Estanguet said he was confident there were robust enough measures in place to ensure "transparency".

"We continue to move forward calmly, we are cooperating with all the authorities, notably with the magistrates from the Auditors' Court, who have audited our accounts five times in the past five years," he said.

- Disruption possible -

The torch will be lit as is traditional in Olympia on April 16 then brought to Marseille on the three-masted ship Belem.

Mindful of the chaos surrounding the last time the torch relay took place in France in 2008 for the Beijing Summer Games -- due to protests denouncing China's treatment of Tibet -- security will be tight.

"We know that certain groups and activists will try something," a source close to the organisers told AFP.

"(Ecology activists) Extinction Rebellion or who knows what organisation are going to throw things on the torch, or block the route."

Protestors may have more trouble disrupting the relay on the sea as it faces a second boat trip on a trimaran skippered by 2016/2017 Vendee Globe winner Armel Le Cleac'h.

The 46-year-old -- nicknamed 'The Jackal -- will captain a crew that will take the torch from Brest in Brittany on a week-long voyage to Guadeloupe and then on to Martinique.

"For me it is a moment of great pride, an honour and a huge responsibility," Le Cleac'h told AFP.

"We are making history in transporting the torch in a boat."

On the French mainland it will be accompanied by a huge caravan -- the Game sponsors taking advantage of the publicity -- resembling that which follows the Tour de France cycling race.

It will also pass through cities such as Toulon, Toulouse and Montpellier as well as picturesque tourist draws such as Versailles and another famous Chateau, Chambord in the Loire Valley.

The torch bearers are chosen by the organisers and the sporting community.

Others will come from the relay's sponsors and from other Olympic partners. The remaining 10 percent will be inhabitants of the French overseas territories the torch visits.

P.Deng--ThChM