Some think it’s a cross between the Eiffel Tower and a beret. Others see it as a goofy, red French Smurf. It’s Phryge (pronounced freej), the official mascot of the Paris Olympics. At the Olympics megastore on the Champs-Élysées, 15,000 shoppers stand in a line nearly five blocks long every day to snap up Phryge in its many iterations (Posing as the Mona Lisa! and to buy millions of euros’ worth of official Olympic-branded merchandise.

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Persons: It’s Phryge, Mona Lisa ! Organizations: Eiffel, Paris, Games Locations: —