OVERSEAS BRIEFING

Author: JASON SIEGEL

PARIS - The Magical Mystery Tour has finally arrived in Paris, after stops in New York, London and Madrid (and a final stop in Moscow to go). No, it's not the Beatles (or what's left of them); no, it's someone Paris loves even more: the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

On the surface, Paris might appear the easy choice. By 2012, the United States and Spain will have each had the summer Games once in the previous 30 years, and London is rainy and too expensive. Moscow is kind of the dark horse in all of this, but unless the Russian president starts "putin" more effort into rehabilitating a country devastated by the poorly executed conversion to democracy (which it still hasn't quite gotten the hang of), it really doesn't stand much of a shot.

Paris, conversely, doesn't have many of these pitfalls. Like London, it is rainy and trop cher, but to a lesser extent. It's also the most visited city in the world (in the world's most visited country), has monuments known in every corner of the world, and is surprisingly well equipped as far as sports facilities are concerned.

The Olympics, though originally a Greek tradition, were revived by a French aristocrat in the late nineteenth century. Plus, it's quite determined to recover from the loss to Beijing for the 2008 games, an apparent indication that General DeGaulle is no match for General Tsao.

As befits an Olympic bid, Paris does have a few hurdles to get over. First of all, France is a country with an incredibly strong sense of the power of the citizen, which gives rise to many strikes and protests, including one that coincides with the arrival of the IOC delegation. The IOC will be well aware that a transportation strike in the middle of the Games is far from unlikely.

Another obstacle is the accessibility of many monuments, metro stations and stadiums. Paris is a city that until the 1840s was a medieval metropolis until Napoleon III had Baron Haussmann tear it up to eliminate problems like disease and revolts.

Given that many of its buildings are date from a time when the official policy on accessibility was, "Tant pis" (roughly: "Sucks to be you"), Paris can be a tough city to negotiate in a wheelchair. While this might not be a problem for most of the visitors, one must not forget that the Paralympics take place just after the larger, more watched Olympics, and that in a tight race such as this one, the accessibility might be a problem.

And of course, we can't forget the figure-skating fiasco of the last Winter Olympics, when a French judge was bribed into voting for the Russians instead of the Canadians.

Unfortunately, we have to wait until July for the IOC's official decision. Until then, Vive Paris 2012!