Maxwell: you can still see all the competitors and their machines leave from Paris, although the competition itself will not officially start until they depart Dakar. Paris is still the staging and inspection site, and I think they fly out on the 2nd or 3rd. More info is available on the Paris-Dakar-Cairo official web site:
www.dakar.com
I'm announcing the race on Speedvision and will be there as well (see the post "The Great Adventure" on this forum).
Also, Christophe, many thanks for the great directions. I'm taking a few extra days in Paris on my return from Cairo. I printed out your directions and will use them to take the subway to the museum... thanks again.