Interesting day on Sunday, when we took a trip to the Champs Elysées for a look at the Champs Olympiques, which they did for the Paris 2012 Olympic bid.

Basically, what they'd done was transform the whole avenue, from the Place de l'étoile down to below the Rond-Point, into an exhibition of all the Olympic Sports. the most spectacular thing was the running track they'd laid from Avene George V up to the Arc de Triomphe, but everything else was cool, too. There were boxing rings, football pitches, an equestrian ring - even a lake with fans for the yachts.

We took Isobel along, thinking she might be a little overwhelmed by it all, but she had a whale of a time wandering along (strictly speaking I was wandering and she was on my shoulders) looking at what was happenign. I think she liked the fencing and the hockey best, apart from the ponies.

The French have a certain flair for these things, and there's no doubt it looked fantastic on the TV. Seems they're pretty much favourites to land the games, too - with London the only real competition now.