The beautiful Games

In Paris, some of the world's most iconic tourist sites are venues for elite competition

- ALLAN WOODS

PARIS Paris is known for its spectacles.

In the 19th century, when Napoleon III ordered the French capital dug up and redesigned, it was laid out along long, wide, eye-catching boulevards that gave on to eyecatching monuments.

The Champs-Élysées, connecting the Arc de Triomphe at one end to Place de la Concorde at the other, is but the most famous example.

Some describe the city itself as a sort of life-sized museum with the world's best-known exhibits.

The Louvre, home to Mona Lisa.

The impressionists, whose work lives on inside the Musée d'Orsay.

People the world over come to see the Paris Opera, the Pantheon and Gustave Eiffel's glittering tower.

But if there is one thing that will set the Paris Olympics apart from those that have come before it, it is the transformation of some of the city's most iconic sites into playgrounds where the world's top athletes will compete for global gold.

"Each time that I go on a site, it strikes me that I have the Eiffel Tower in front of me," said Canadian Brigitte Légaré, who is organizing the Olympic sports events in central Paris.

Légaré was speaking from the Champ de Mars, where judo and wrestling will be held.