On Tuesday morning, an all-star line-up of celebrities and royals took part in the Olympic torch relay that leads up to the Paris Games in July.
It began with actress Halle Berry, who lit her torch before walking down a part of the croisette in Cannes. In aviator Ray-Ban sunglasses and all-white athletic wear, she looked like the French version of her role in Catwoman.
She was joined by Thierry Fremaux, the director of the Cannes Film Festival:
After, Princess Charlene of Monaco, her husband Prince Albert II, and their twins Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques took part in the relay in Monaco, carrying the Olympic torch as a family.
Charlene was a successful Olympian athlete before retiring from professional swimming in 2007, having won three gold medals in her career. Prince Albert, too, was also an Olympic athlete, having competed in the bobsleigh at five consecutive Winter Olympics for Monaco.
In addition to Berry and the Monegasque royals, athletes Megan Rapinoe, Paul Rabil, Charles Leclerc, and Shaun White also participated in the torch relay today. The torch journeys through the South of France this week, after arriving at the port city of Marseille last month from Greece. The locations of the Olympic torch relay are chosen carefully, in order to showcase the beauty and culture of the host country.
The ceremony, based on the Ancient Greek custom of lighting a fire in honor of the mythological gods, was first conceptualized and modernized for the controversial 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics. Today, the tradition of the torch ceremony continues, as the host country of the Olympics each year designs a torch that represents their nation (and can resist the wind and rain).
Once the host country's torches are prepared, the torch relay begins in Greece. According to the official Olympics website, the torch is lit in Olympia every four years, at the site of where Baron de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, is interred. In this sacred space, a group of women representing the Vestal Virgins—priestesses of Greek goddess Hestia— kindle the flame. They must use a parabolic mirror to capture the sun's rays, and once the fire is started, the sacred flame, alongside an olive branch representing peace, is given to the first runner, usually a Greek Olympian, who relays it to other runners all over Greece, before bringing it to the Panathenian Stadium in Athens.
After the torch is initially lit in Athens, the flame is passed on from torch to torch until it reaches the host country of that year's Olympics, and the relay continues within the host country until the lighting of the Olympic cauldron, which signals the official start of the games. The flame of the cauldron is extinguished during the closing ceremony of the games.
Sofia Yadigaroglu is the Digital Editorial Intern for Town & Country where she covers fashion, culture, entertainment, and other life ‘essentials.’ A student at Amherst College, she studies English and Art History, loves to paint, and speaks four languages. Follow her at @sofiayadigaroglu on Instagram.
