Watch: The Champs-Élysées is hosting a giant dictation competition

Paris’ most iconic street, the Champs-Elysees, was transformed into an open-air mass “dictation” spell on Sunday, pitting thousands of France’s smartest bookworms against each other.

More than 50,000 people have applied to participate in the event, a world first, in which aspirants attempt to faithfully and error-free transcribe a text read to them.

Of the entries, 5,100 people, aged between 10 and 90, were drawn at random to take part in one of the three main dictations led by novelist Rachid Santaki.

With 1,779 desks placed on Paris’s most famous avenue in each session, the organizers had sought to break the world record for a spelling dictation contest.

Adriana Lima

Adriana Lima (Brazilian Portuguese: [adɾiˈãnɐ ˈlimɐ]; born June 12, 1981) is a Brazilian model and actress, best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1999 to 2018. She was the longest-running model and named "the most valuable Victoria's Secret Angel" in 2017. She is also known as a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics since 2003, and for her Super Bowl and Kia Motors commercials. At age 15, Lima won Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" competition, and took second place the following year in the Ford "Supermodel of the World" competition before signing with Elite Model Management in New York City.