It is no great secret that French is the official language of the Olympic Movement. After all ,Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the man who revived them was a Frenchman and a proud one at that. The 1894 meeting at which the revival of the Olympic Games was agreed took place in Paris.

Nor will it come as any surprise to anyone who has ever attended an Olympic Games that signs appear in French as well as English and that announcements are made in both languages throughout the Games. Indeed only last week, the London Organising Committee were advertising for stadium announcers who spoke French.

The earliest bulletins issued by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were all in French and The Olympic Charter, the rule book by which the Games are governed notes that "in case of divergence between the French and English, the French shall prevail."

No-one should be unduly concerned by this. From the outset, the British and French had worked closely together. Coubertin took much of his Olympic inspiration from visits to Britain. He was greatly influenced by the work of Dr William Penny Brookes who established Olympian Games and promoted sport and well being at Much Wenlock in Shropshire. Coubertin admitted as much

"If the Olympic Games that Modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survives today, it is due, not to a Greek, but to Dr William Penny Brookes."

Coubertin's great nephew Antoine De Navacelle said recently: "Between London England, and Paris, France, the Olympic Games are very much  a common story because of Pierre de Coubertin."

He said "cooperation between France and the UK on Olympic matters is very important."

In fact, were it not for the "Entente Cordiale" with France, the 1908 Olympic Games in London might never have happened. Originally destined for Rome, London stepped in at short notice when the Italians pulled out in the wake of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It was possible only because an Anglo-French Exhibition was planned in the West of London for the summer of 1908 and exhibition organisers agreed to pay for the construction of the stadium with no charge made to the Olympic Organising Committee. Without this financial break the first London Games would not have been viable.

The secretary of the British Olympic Association at the time was the Reverend Robert Stuart de Courcy Laffan, one time headmaster of Cheltenham College. A decade earlier he had addressed the IOC congress in Le Havre.

"Everyone was most astonished to hear the British delegate improvise a talk in perfectly styled French," wrote Coubertin who promptly invited the Reverend to become a member of the IOC.

A century later Sir Craig Reedie, now an IOC Executive Board member, also addressed the IOC in French as London bid for the 2012 Games.

In practice, the majority of the business of the Olympic Movement is conducted in English and although you'll hear announcements made in French notably at the opening ceremonies and when medals are presented, whisper it quietly, too much in French would not do for the American television audiences.

English will prevail at the Opening ceremony. Once Greece have entered, all the other countries will march in alphabetical order according to their names in English.

When IOC President Rogge invites the Queen to open the Games, she will do so only in English, although she did make the declaration at the Montreal Games of 1976 in French and English in deference to the two linguistic communities in Canada.

The IOC President himself will alternate between both languages during his speeches, and it is here that things do not always go according to plan.

At the Closing Ceremony in Beijing, he spoke first in English but then switched to French. So the words which had the most resonance for a London audience, "I call upon the youth of the world to come together in London", were spoken not in English but French.

A mistake? It certainly looked that way, although the IOC press department insisted this was because the French language took precedence. If this were the case, why did Rogge not deliver this part of the speech in French in Salt Lake City, Athens, Turin or Vancouver? In each case he made the call in English.

London famously beat Paris in the final vote to get the 2012 Games. Rather tactlessly the organisers played some music in the auditorium in Singapore immediately the result was announced. It was from Olivier's classic film Henry V which tells of the victory at Agincourt!

Initial disappointment across the channel has turned to realisation that these might be golden Games for the France as well.

"All the French athletes believe that having an Olympic Games in London will be exactly the same as having it in Paris," said French NOC chief Denis Masseglia

They will of course be able to read the signs.

Philip Barker, a freelance journalist, has been on the editorial team of the Journal of Olympic History and is credited with having transformed the publication into one of the most respected historical publications on the history of the Olympic Games. He is also an expert on Olympic Music, a field which is not generally well known.