PARIS: Freshly cooked bread, select cheeses and a broad veggie offer will be among the meals to be offered to athletes and visitors during the 2024 Paris Olympics — including, of course, gourmet dishes created by renowned French chefs.

About 40,000 meals are expected to be served each day during the Games to the more than 15,000 athletes from 200 different countries housed at the Olympic village.

Visitors, too, will be able to enjoy some specially created snacks at the different venues.

French food services company Sodexo Live!, which was selected to oversee the catering at the athletes’ village and 14 venues of the Paris Games, said it has created a total of 500 recipes, which will notably be offered at a sit-down eatery for up to 3,500 athletes at the village, meant to be the “world’s largest restaurant.”

“Of course, there will be some classics for athletes, like pasta,” said Nathalie Bellon-Szabo, global CEO of Sodexo Live! But the food will have a “very French touch.”

Athletes will also have access to “grab and go” food stands, including one dedicated exclusively to French cuisine cooked up by chefs.

Renowned French chef Amandine Chaignot, who runs a restaurant and a café-bistro in Paris, on Tuesday unveiled one of her recipes based on the iconic croissant.

“I wanted the recipe I suggested to be representative of the French terroir, but I wanted athletes to enjoy it at the same time,” she told the Associated Press. “It was quite obvious for me to make a croissant that I could twist. So, you have a bit of artichoke puree, a poached egg, a bit of truffle and a bit of cheese. It’s both vegetarian and still mouthwatering.”

Every day, during the July 26-Aug. 11 Games, a top chef — including some awarded with Michelin stars — will cook in front of the athletes at the Olympic Village, “so they’ll be able to chat and better understand what French cuisine is about — and to understand a bit of our culture as well,” Chaignot said.

Daily specials will be accompanied by a wide range of salads, pastas, grilled meat and soups. Cheeses will include top quality camembert, brie and sheep’s milk-based Ossau-Iraty from southwestern France.

The Olympic Village will also feature a boulangerie producing fresh baguettes and a variety of other breads.

“The idea is to offer athletes the chance to grab a piping hot baguette for breakfast,” said baker Tony Dore, who will be working at the Olympic Village’s main restaurant.

Athletes interested in other than sports, will even be able to participate in daily bakery trainings, and learn to make their own French baguette, said Doré.

In an effort to provide as many options as possible, meals offered will revolve around four cuisines: French, Asian, African and the Caribbean and international food.

Paris 2024 organizers have promised to make the Games more sustainable and environment-friendly — and that includes efforts to reduce the use of plastic. To this effect, the main restaurant at the village will use only reusable dishes.

Additionally, organizers say all meals will be based on seasonal products and 80 percent will come from France.

Plant-based food will represent 60 percent of the offer for visitors at the venues, including a “vegetarian hot-dog,” said Philipp Würz, head of Food and Beverage for the Paris 2024 Committee.

There’s “a huge amount of plant-based recipes that will be available for the general public to try, to experience and, hopefully, they will love it,” said Würz.

The urban park at the Place de la Concorde, in central Paris, will offer visitors 100 percent vegetarian food — a first in the Games’ history. The place will be the stage for Paris 2024’s most contemporary sporting disciplines: BMX freestyle, 3x3 basketball, skateboarding and breakdancing.

PARIS: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is enjoying a stunning late-career revival at Marseille, whose unlikely run to the semifinals of the Europa League has been made possible largely thanks to the goals of the former Arsenal striker.

There was plenty of skepticism when Marseille signed the 34-year-old on a three-year deal after a poor last campaign at Chelsea.

The Gabon international had struggled to settle at Stamford Bridge at a turbulent time for the London club, and scored just one goal in only five starts in the Premier League.

However, the return to the country of his birth after a decade abroad has worked a treat, even in a Marseille side who have lurched through numerous crises over the course of the season.

Aubameyang has rediscovered the prolific form of his heady days at Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal, netting 27 goals in 46 games in all competitions.

His goals have not been enough to propel Marseille into the upper reaches of the Ligue 1 table, given that they currently sit seventh with only three games left.

That means there is a danger they won’t qualify for Europe at all next season.

Aubameyang and Marseille are on their third coach of the campaign, with Spaniard Marcelino Garcia Toral quitting in September after only seven games at the helm.

His decision to walk came after a fiery meeting between club management and unhappy supporters groups.

Marcelino was replaced with former Italy star Gennaro Gattuso, but he didn’t fare much better, lasting five months before being dismissed in February.

The current man in charge is Jean-Louis Gasset, the veteran 70-year-old who was available after leaving the Ivory Coast job during the Africa Cup of Nations.

Gasset has not been able to make Marseille more consistent domestically, but he has led them to victories in the Europa League against Shakhtar Donetsk, Villarreal — two former winners of the competition — and Benfica.

That run, including beating former European Cup winners Benfica on penalties in the quarterfinals, has led OM to a last-four showdown with Atalanta.

“We dream of evenings like these. This is a competition that suits us,” Gasset said after beating Benfica.

“We have got to the semifinals of a European competition having beaten three clubs who have won (European) trophies.

“It is an epic tale. A season can only be judged at the end, but we want to go as far as possible.”

That would mean getting to the final in Dublin on May 22 against either Roma or German champions Bayer Leverkusen.

Marseille, who lost the Europa League final in 2018 and the UEFA Cup finals of 1999 and 2004, would not be favorites in the final and are also probably the underdogs against Atalanta, conquerors of Liverpool in the last round.

But Aubameyang could be the man to make the difference.

After all, the forward who was on the books at AC Milan as a youth and who made his name at Saint-Etienne, is the all-time top scorer in the Europa League.

He has 34 goals in the competition, a tally that leaves him four ahead of Radamel Falcao, the next best marksman.

“It’s my competition,” he remarked with a smile when speaking to UEFA after starring in the 4-0 win over Villarreal in the last-16 first leg.

Eight of those goals came at Dortmund, while he got 14 for Arsenal, with whom he played in their defeat by Chelsea in the 2019 final in Baku.

He has 10 in 11 games in the competition this season for Marseille, including five in two games against Ajax.

“He is a champion and he has almost unique characteristics. He is one of the best strikers of the last 15 years,” Marseille president Pablo Longoria told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“He has scored lots of goals and done so everywhere he has been. He is the best goal-scorer in the Europa League.

“We hope he will make his mark against Atalanta and stay with us until the end of his career.”