We are instant fans of the France Pavilion’s fashionable and practical uniforms made in France by Armor-Lux. Some French people may cringe at the quintessentially Breton shirt style, but we could think of a lot worse national costumes than this!

Did you know that Breton shirt was officially created by the 27th March 1858 Act which introduced this blue and white striped knitted shirt in the uniform list of the French seaman. It was said that this stripe allowed to locate more easily a man fallen into the sea.

Tomorrow Ogilvy PR Worldwide and Millward Brown ACSR will release a follow-up survey to our questionnaire of February/March 2009 in which we gathered information about peoples’ familiarity and intentions surrounding Expo 2010. In that report, the 13,000 respondents were most excited about the USA Pavilion, followed by France and the UK.

So which do you predict is the most anticipated pavilion now? Make your choice using the poll beneath the World Expo Blog logo. We’ve included the Top 10 from last year’s survey.

If there was some image software that could predict the future, we would see this same image but full of people on the ground. Can you imagine?

Some of the most appealing pavilions of the European area are located within this avenue. On the extreme right there is Switzerland, with a Disneyland-style cable car that is going to be a magnet for audiences. Behind it there is France, whose sensualité and other attractions will make it one of the most attended pavilions.

On the opposite side there is the Happy Street, the Netherlands Pavilion, which was one of the first pavilions to be seen from Lupu Bridge. Then, from the back to the front, there is Germany, Poland and Belgium (which is just out of view). All these “neighbours” promise interesting exhibits; especially Belgium whose eye-catching Brain Cell will entice all passers-by to the promise of beer and chocolate inside.

Then there is Spain from whose roof I took this picture. Believe me, the Spain Pavilion will be fabulous. I guess the experience of hosting two recent world expos and having an agency solely dedicated to World Expo issues will be reflected in a top notch pavilion. Keep an eye on them because rumors say they have amazing surprise for their visitors.

• Name: Exposition Universelle de 1900
• Where: Champ de Mars, Trocadero, Avenue des Invalides, Paris, France
• When: 15 April to 12 November, 1900
• Attendance: 50 million
• Cost: Unknown, but it turned a profit for the French government of 7,000,000 Francs
• Size: 1.12 square kilometres
• Participants: 76,000
• Legacy: A number of Paris’ most noted structures were built for the Exposition, including the Gare de Lyon, the Gare d’Orsay (now the Musée d’Orsay), the Pont Alexandre III, the Grand Palais, La Ruche, and the Petit Palais. The first line of the Paris Metro also began operation to coincide with the Exposition.
• Trivia: Part of the Exposition was the Second Olympic Games, which were spread over five months. The games also marked the first participation by female athletes and, in such sports as tennis, football (soccer), polo, rowing and tug of war, teams were multinational. The style that was universally present in the Exposition was Art Nouveau. Russian sparkling wine defeated all the French entries to claim the internationally coveted ‘Grand Prix de Champagne’.

Discover other world’s fairs and expos.

In last week’s poll we asked you to nominate your favourite Expo 2010 mascot and the Belgium/EU pavilion prevailed thanks to the Smurfs who enjoy sentimental popularity in China and around the world. The little blue gang edged out our beloved little blue guy, Haibao (China), followed by Leon (France), Tai (Thailand), Peng Peng (Australia) and Durian Star (Singapore).

This week, ahead of the climate summit in Copenhagen next week, we want to know your choice for the Pavilion with the greenest credentials. We’ve pre-selected nation’s with stand-alone or self-built pavilions who are strongly promoting their green credentials.

Read the rest of this entry →

Edmonton, Canada, has unveiled its bid proposal to host a world expo in 2017 at a cost of over two billion Canadian dollars. Mayor Stephen Mendelis already on the hustings:

“There will be music, there will be fun, Cirque du Soleil will be here… We want to create a real happening in the city,” a pumped-up Mandel told a crowd of Expo supporters.

“It’s going to be a big party, not just for 90 days, but for the whole year and for the whole province.”

He went on to add that an expo is “the intellectual equivalent of the Olympics.”

The theme of the Edmonton fair would be Harmony of Energy and Our Future Planet. According to Wikipedia, other possible bids are expected from Stavanger in Norway, Lille in France and Belgrade the capital city of Serbia. The BIE will decide in 2012.

• Name: Exposition Universelle de 1889
• Where: Champ de Mars, the Trocadéro, the quai d’Orsay, a part of the Seine and the Invalides esplanade
• When: May 1 to October 31, 1889
• Attendance: 48,000,000 visitors
• Cost: 41,500,000 Frances
• Size: 0.96 km²
• Participants: 61,722 exhibitors of which 55% were French
• Legacy: The Eiffel Tower
• Trivia: A “Negro village” (village nègre) where 400 indigenous people were displayed constituted the major attraction; Buffalo Bill recruited American sharpshooter Annie Oakley to rejoin his ‘Wild West Show’.

Discover other world’s fairs and expos.

Yesterday we commented on the official mascot of the Singapore Pavilion at Expo 2010 which is inspired by the durian fruit: an acquired taste in more ways than one. Shanghaiist has a new found pride in Haibao, CNNGo calls him cute but stinky, while Shanghai-based Singaporean Kenneth Tan says Durian Star is “fugly beyond words“:

Say hi, everyone, to the “Durian Star” (榴莲小星), mascot of the Singapore pavilion at Expo 2010 Shanghai. It promises to offer an “electrifying Expo experience” indeed. Tell me please — anyone — is it possible at all to design something uglier than this complete and utter monstrosity? It’s a frightful, grotesque and nightmare-inducing eyesore — some of the autistic children I’ve worked with could design something better with their eyes closed. As another Singaporean friend in Shanghai commented to me, someone at the MFA (nah, STB perhaps?) needs to get fired. I agree. In another 155 days when Expo 2010 finally opens, I know the Singapore pavilion is one that I will avoid like the plague.

Another point: Australia, France, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and, of course, China all have male mascots. Someone close to one of those pavilions once told me that “in the world of mascots there is no gender” but what is wrong with having a female mascot? It looks like Lady Smurf of the Belgium Pavilion is the only one holding up half the Expo sky and even she has to share the limelight with a gaggle of the little boys.

ExpoMuseum has a gallery of mascots from past world expos where the boys.

UPDATE: Has Adam J Schokora of 56minus1 discovered Haibao’s true gender?