Greece handed over the Olympic flame to the organizers of the Paris 2024 Games in a solemn ceremony in Athens on Friday.
The event took place in the Panathenaic Stadium, built entirely of marble, where the first modern Olympics were held in 1896.
The national anthems of France and Greece were sung by the celebrated Greek singer Nana Mouskouri in front of around 20,000 spectators and the event was broadcast live on television.
"Our best wishes for a successful staging of the 33rd Olympic Games in Paris," said the president of the Greek Olympic Committee, Spyros Kapralos, to the president of the French organizing committee, Tony Estanguet.
The traditional flame was lit on April 16 at the ancient site of Olympia on Greece's Peloponnese peninsula.
It then travelled through Greece in a torch relay and will be transported from the Greek port of Piraeus to the southern French city of Marseille on Saturday on board a French ship.
Marseille has strong historical ties to Greece, having been founded as a Greek colony.
The arrival of the flame in France is scheduled for May 8. The Paris Olympic Games will tak place from July 26 to August 11.
