hundreds of thousands celebrate on Paris' Champs-Elysées

Seven months before the Paris Olympic Games, several hundred thousand people gather on the Champs-Elysées for the New Year festivities.

Musical entertainment, an aerial circus and fireworks over the Arc de Triomphe marked the "start of the Olympic year".

A total of 6,000 police officers were mobilized in the French capital to ensure a safe passage into the New Year.