On Lavishness

Paris seems likely to win its bid for the 2012 Olympics and part of its appeal is that it won't take much for Paris to prepare for the Games.

[This} is also a reason why Paris intends to take a more low key approach toward the evaluation team, which has been treated to lavish dinners with royalty in Madrid and London, and received star treatment in a New York draped in Olympic banners and dinner with celebrity guests.

Paris is responding with a dinner with President Jacques Chirac and the mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, and has festooned itself in Paris 2012 paraphernalia, including five million baguettes swathed in bid-sponsored wrappers.

Unless London offered five million dinners with five million royals or New York unveiled five million Olympic banners with just as many dinners and celebrities, I don't understand how Paris is able to garner a reputation for simplicity--given all all that bread.

Now, if Paris really wanted to be both simple and impressive, they might have tried using only five loaves, instead of five million.