PIRAEUS, Greece, April 27, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The Olympic flame on Saturday 
began its journey to France on board the Belem leaving the Greek port of 
Piraeus after spending the night at the French embassy in Athens. 

"The feelings are so exceptional. It's such an emotion for me", Tony 
Estanguet, Paris Olympics chief organiser, told reporters before the 
departure of the ship.

He hailed the "great coincidence" how the Belem was launched just weeks after 
the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.

The 19th-century three-masted boat was accompanied off the port of Piraeus by 
the trireme Olympias of the Greek Navy and 25 sailing boats while dozens of 
people watched behind railings for security reasons. 

"We came here so that the children understand that the Olympic ideal was born 
in Greece. I'm really moved," Giorgos Kontopoulos, who watched the ship 
starting its voyage with his two children, told AFP.

On Sunday, the ship will pass from the Corinth Canal -- a feat of 19th 
century engineering constructed with the contribution of French banks and 
engineers. 

The Belem is set to reach Marseille -- where a Greek colony was founded in 
around 600 BCE -- on May 8.

Greece on Friday had handed over the Olympic flame of the 2024 Games, at a 
ceremony, to Estanguet.

Hellenic Olympic Committee chairman Spyros Capralos handed the torch to 
Estanguet at the Panathenaic Stadium, where the Olympics were held in 1896.

Estanguet said the goal for Paris was to organise "spectacular but also more 
responsible Games, which will contribute towards a more inclusive society."

Organisers want to ensure "the biggest event in the world plays an 
accelerating role in addressing the crucial questions of our time," said 
Estanguet, a member of France's Athens 2004 Olympics team who won gold in the 
slalom canoe event.

A duo of French champions, Beijing 2022 ice dance gold medallist Gabriella 
Papadakis and former swimmer Beatrice Hess, one of the most successful 
Paralympians in history, carried the flame during the final relay leg into 
the Panathenaic Stadium.

Nana Mouskouri, the 89-year-old Greek singer with a worldwide following, sang 
the French and Greek anthems at the ceremony.