The French connection: Paris flame to make first stop in Greece at heart of modern games' founder

Just outside the site of the ancient Olympic Games, hooting owls break the nighttime silence at a white marble monument containing what’s left of a singular Frenchman’s heart.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin was the driving force behind the modern Olympics, and as head of the International Olympic Committee oversaw the last Games to be held in Paris, exactly 100 years ago.

On Tuesday, the flame that will burn at this summer’s Olympics — the French capital’s third — is to be lit among the ruined temples and sports venues of Olympia in southern Greece.

And its first stop on the relay that culminates in the July 26 opening ceremony will be at this cypress-ringed memorial to Coubertin, where the torchbearer will light an altar in his honor.

That happens at every lighting ceremony, but this year it will have a special resonance, according to Spyros Capralos, head of the Greek national Olympic committee.

“We pay respect to the (monument) of Coubertin every time ... the flame goes first...