Street to cine, French rally for 2012 Games

On June 5, nearly 700,000 people turned up on the Champs-Elysees -- transformed for the occasion into a makeshift Olympic arena -- in support of Paris’ bid for the 2012 Summer Games. The event brought back memories of the July 1998 celebration of the French national soccer team’s World Cup victory over Brazil, when more than a million filled the famed boulevard.

The whole phenomenon is eerily similar to what happened here in 1998. At first, one was hard pressed to find a Parisian who wished to welcome athletes and others from all over the world for the World Cup games in France -- so much so that the city actually put up billboards reminding Parisians to be friendly to their guests. But in the end, the city and country were united in victory.

For months now the city has been transformed by flags, posters, billboards and buses adorned with the Olympic rings. Even national monuments like the Assemblee Nationale at the Place de la Concorde boast neon signs reminding Parisians to get behind the bid. On the official website one can partake in an animated javelin throw -- only the javelin is replaced by a baguette.

The film industry has signed up too. Christophe Baratier, director of 2004’s Oscar-nominated French box office smash “Les Choristes,” and Luc Besson have made short films to help convince the nation and the committee that Paris is the place. Baratier’s film, airing in theaters and on TV, offers 45 seconds of French people beating their chests “pour l’amour des jeux” (“for the love of the games”), the bid’s official slogan.

Not all is love, however. One baker in the area near the proposed Olympic village ranted that future generations would pay for the debt created and said that all athletes are on drugs anyway.

She must not have seen the baguette throw.

-- Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte In Paris