Frenchy

Oh dear. After having lost the Finnish vote, we are now going to lose the Japanese one!! http://www.euronews.com/2013/09/12/japan-anger-with-newspaper-le-canard-enchaine-over-fukushima-tokyo-2020-cartoon/

Saw this article the other day (in French): http://www.lefigaro.fr/jeux-olympiques/2013/07/05/02020-20130705ARTSPO00728-crise-ouverte-entre-la-ministre-des-sports-et-le-cnosf.php Basically, the French NOC (CNOSF) and the sports minister, Valérie Fourneyron, aren't speaking to each other any more. It's all down to public funding which is drying up and the setting up of a national sports council. Last July Denis Masseglia, head of the CNOSF, actually walked out of two meeting with the sports minister. Doesn't really bode well for the future. Does it?

I’m sure Italy will organize an extraordinary SOG in 2024 and wish them all the best. I look forward to travelling to Rome for the games.

Woa! Lads! Lads! Keep it cool! Keep it cool! Paris 2024 is really not worth fighting over Peace and Love, Peace and Love.......

Hi hektor, Gothic cathedrals and 18th century paintings are precisely what bring visitors to France in droves. Not astronautics. Anyway, last time I looked Kourou was in France not Holland. May I suggest you try reading this book. It's a bit dated but still topical: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sixty-Million-Frenchmen-Cant-Wrong/dp/1861057156 I’ll stop there because we both run the risk of seriously going off topic…..

Not forgetting, as I said earlier, the present political, economic and social climate.

Ah. The old « énarchie » debate! Bit of a chestnut, non? Then again, you may be right. But it’s not what lost us the 2012 bid. If you have time to spare (or waste! ) you might want to read the following books: http://www.amazon.fr/Jeux-perdus-Paris-2012-g%C3%A2ch%C3%A9/dp/2213628491 http://www.amazon.fr/JO-2012-Paris-perdu-Comment/dp/2748309456 http://www.amazon.fr/Malheureux-aux-jeux-lorganisation-Olympiques/dp/2916400001 I agree with your other post elsewhere, this ‘Paris 2024’ debate is slowly turning into an obsession for some.....

Nah! It's all water under the bridge. I, like other Parisians, have moved on.....

You rascal baron! You edited your poste and thought I hadn't seen you. Naughty.....

<pedant mode> Accent aigüe, not grave. Touché (not touchè) <pedant mode>

Thanks for the offer baron! Don't call us. We'll call you!

To be fair, only a minority like hektor, who doesn't live here btw, think of France as he does. The rest of us are quite proud of our country in spite of some of her failings. As for doing good, I agree that organising a SOG would have been quite uplifting. That's precisely why we bid in 2005 for 2012. Unfortunately the ioc preferred playing politics and Russian roulette rather than giving the games to the only city who was genuinely passionate about its bid. That was then. This is now. Today everyone here believes that the present political, economic and social climate isn't conducive to a successful bid for 2024. Too bad........

hektor, You sound like Donald Rumsfeld and his dim-witted president back in 2003!! (remember “the French don’t have a word for entrepreneur” ? ) TGV, la carte à puce (smart card), ITER. . . . Hardly the achievements of a museum country! As for dynamism EDF, Vivendi, Orange etc are hoovering up utility companies the world over. I fail to see, like most of my countrymen, what a SOG would add in the immediate future.

If there’s one lesson we’ve learnt from previous experience it’s that bidding for a SOG is a filthy, dirty and brutal affair (2005 is the perfect example) with the prize, usually but not always, going to the filthiest, dirtiest and most brutal bidder. Quite frankly it’s a bother we can well do without. Besides, holding a SOG means three things: - locking down a city for two months and turning it into a target for every loony terrorist on the globe - handing the keys to a group of men and women, the ioc, who haven’t been the friendliest of people to us (Rogge gave an interview back in September 2005 to l’Equipe Magazine in which he basically spat in the eye of the French bidding team. We’re still reeling from that interview today….) - and spending an inordinate amount of money for the privilege, money that will never be recouped whatever some might say. It’s a ‘privilege’ we can well do without in the present climate. There are also the domestic issues. François Hollande was elected with the smallest of majorities in 2012 and his only solutions to France’s economic woes were to increase taxes. So much so that after twelve months in office he has reached a level of unpopularity which it took Sarkozy four years to reach previously! With local and mayoral elections looming in 2014 the last thing the French elector wants is new spending. Any candidate who so much as mentions the word ‘Olympics’ runs the real risk of being voted out of office! Neither is being a frontrunner or a favourite necessarily the cosy trip it’s made out to be as we well know. When you’re a favourite you seem to be spending more time fending off attacks than trying to put your message through to the ioc. Again, why bother? It’s not like we really needed the games after all. We might be happy to host the games, even be proud to host them but don’t really need them. Paris is already the most visited city in the world. It’s the capital of style and glamour. It’s where every woman wants to be taken to! It’s the city that put the ‘A’ in A-list! So it’s not like we needed to be on the map. We’re already there! If you add to the equation the fact that France already hosts a bevy of internationally known sporting events (TDF, Roland-Garros, 24h du Mans, le Vendée Globe, la Route du Rhum, Grand Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, etc, not forgetting our role in football, rugby, handball….) the argument for going through the mangle of bidding then hosting an event such as the SOG really starts to lose its attraction. Then again, I may be completely wrong and Paris will be bidding for 2024!!

Mm. So Paris wants to bid for 2024? That's a new for me. Nothing on the grapevine here. BTW félicitations to Tokyo. Nice to see they managed to get the games without having to rely on an organised smear campaign......

<blush> Why, thank you kind sir! Very true. Wise words......

I think you're jumping the gun a little too quickly there SR. As I said elsewhere there's little or no chance that Paris will be bidding for 2024 even if Tokyo does get the nod....again. The reasons are manifold and too numerous to list, mainly economics and political. Also the mood just isn't there any more....

Seems that in spite of the success of the games, the merchandise isn't selling too well: http://www.dailymail...ales-slump.html http://www.dailymail...ish-public.html

Forget it. There will be no WOG in France until there's been a SOG in Paris. Which - for the moment - is no time soon......

Totalement d'accord avec tout ce que tu dis Tulsa. Rien à redire. Désolé pour Annecy mais j'ai également le sentiment que sa perte était courue d'avance.....

BD a été relativement claire, il n'a nullement l'intention de présider ou diriger une nouvelle candidature pour Paris (maintenant que ses ambitions présidentielles sont passées à la trappe!!). Il laissera ce privilège à d'autres. C'est maintenant que tu t'en aperçois? Quand j'ai vu la dégueulasserie qu'a été la course pour 2012, je m'en suis tout de suite rendu compte! A leur décharge, cela faisait quand même 3 fois qu'ils se présentaient. Tant mieux pour eux et tant pis pour nous.....

Raaaaaa Tééééééé! Maintenant, à nous Paris 2020/24!

We ARE talking about John "$35,000" Coates? http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,37411,00.html Hardly a reference....

"Stay or Go?" Why? What's wrong? http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/commonwealth_games/delhi_2010/9025907.stm