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The Paris Olympics torch relay suffered its first glitch on Saturday when the cauldron, which is lit at the end of each day, stubbornly refused to ignite.
On the third stage of its 78-day journey at Manosque to the north of Marseille, French swimmer Ophelie-Cyrielle Etienne, a bronze medallist from the 2012 Olympics in London, twice tried without success to ignite the cauldron with the flame.
Officials said there was a technical problem even though the cauldron had been lit successfully on the two previous evenings in Marseille and Toulon.
The torch relay, which will reach Paris in time for the opening ceremony on July 26, had taken place without incident on Saturday as it made its way through the rural and mountainous setting of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence.
In all, the torch relay will feature around 10,000 runners and traverse 400 towns and cities in France as well as some of its overseas territories including Guadeloupe, New Caledonia and Reunion.
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