If Angelenos are optimistic, and New Yorkers are ambitious, Parisians are… defeated. Just consider their attitude toward the supposedly mirth-inducing, patriotism-inspiring, upcoming Summer Olympic Games in their hometown. The traffic is already terrible, they say. Most locals, unsurprisingly, plan to evacuate the city prior to the July 26 Opening Ceremony—getting as far away as possible from the unironic-fanny-pack-wearing tourists and the inevitable canicule. August is the dead month no matter, of course, because Europeans take endless vacations—an heirloom of their civility or an emblem of their complacency, depending on who’s asking. Regardless, as a former French colleague used to say, “Nobody works.” So the Paris Olympics, while draped in national pageantry, will likely represent a Disneyfied vision of Paris.