Everything is in place - except the money, volunteers and pilgrims. One month before Paris is to host a Papal visit as part of the Catholic Church's 12th Journees Mondiales de la Jeunesse (JMJ) (World Youth Days) the festival's organisers, Mgr Michel Dubost, the bishop to the French armed forces, and Gen Philippe Morillon, the former head of the UN peacekeeping force in Bosnia, have left little to chance.
The French Church has spent millions of francs to insure 350,000 visitors from 180 countries against loss of life, limb or property. Sustenance for the pilgrims will be provided by 350 mobile restaurants and includes six million bottles of mineral water and 20 chip vans.
Pope John Paul II's rainbow chasuble has been designed by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, the couturier who used to dress Elton John; Castelbajac is designing chasubles for 500 bishops and 5,000 priests as well.
Christofle, the exclusive French silversmith, is making the Papal chalice. And at the JMJ's Montmartre headquarters, Mgr Dubost proudly displays a scale model of the Longchamps racetrack, to be transformed by French architects into a "cathedral of light" for the Papal Mass on August 24th.
The musical line-up includes Placido Domingo, the diva Cecilia Bartoli, the blind tenor Andrea Boceli, and the jazz and Gospel singer, Dee Dee Bridgewater.
So where are the guests? Compared to earlier gatherings in Buenos Aires, Czestochowa and Manilla, the Paris turnout will be modest, with a maximum 700,000 expected for the closing Papal Mass - Manilla drew four million.
Mgr Dubost this week issued a triple appeal for volunteers - he has more than 12,000 but needs another 4,000; money to pay airfares and lodging for 60,000 youths from eastern Europe and Africa, and paid-up registrations. Four-fifths of the pilgrims are supposed to be paying guests, at a cost of 860 Francs (£101) for six days' food and lodging.
The Church has been let down by French Catholics - it had hoped to place 140,000 young people with families in the Paris area; only half that many have come forward.
Organisers are afraid they will attract fewer than 100,000 French youths - a dismal performance in the country that used to be called "the eldest daughter of the Church". Nor are other nations pulling though: Mgr Dubost has revised his estimates for Polish pilgrims downward from 60,000 to 40,000 and Spaniards from 20,000 to 12,000; 1,000 Irish people are expected.
Protests by secular activists have also cast a shadow on preparations. On July 16th, a coalition of 13 groups including the Voltaire Network, the Free-thinkers, the Greens and the Communist Revolutionary League addressed an angry letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, citing "serious violations of constitutional secularism".
The groups demanded that Mr Jospin dissolve the "Inter-ministerial Coordination Committee for the JMJ" which was installed by his predecessor in the prime minister's Matignon offices. They want the Catholic Church to reimburse the government for the use of military aircraft and they want it to pay market rates for army barracks and schools that house pilgrims. Nor will they accept that religious ceremonies be held in public buildings.
A tract circulating in Paris accuses the government of spending public monies on the JMJ in defiance of the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State. It's true that government radio and television are to be official broadcasters for the JMJ, and Air France is providing cut-price tickets for some pilgrims.
The pamphlet reiterates an objection raised earlier by some French Protestants - that the JMJ, meant to promote inter-religious dialogue, culminates with a Papal Mass on the 425th anniversary of the Saint Barthomew's Day massacre of Protestants by Catholics.
The secularists have scheduled demonstrations and meetings to coincide with the last two days of the JMJ. Mgr Dubost said they had a right to express their opinions in a democracy. But Catholics too were French citizens, he added. "I don't see why as a Catholic I shouldn't have the same rights as Gay Pride." The bishop was referring to a recent march through Paris by European lesbians and homosexuals.