6.27.2006
Allez les Bleus
A nice way to end (almost) my time in France: watching France beat Spain in the 1/8 finals of the World Cup in a stadium full of 10,000 French people (well, 9,800 maybe; there were probably a few other non-French like me). How, you ask, did I do this in France, since the World Cup is happening in Germany? At the Stade (stadium) Charléty, in the far south of the city, they let people in free during the World Cup to watch all the matches on what was described to me as a "giant screen." Well, from where we were sitting it was more like a cell phone screen, but that's OK; you could more or less see what was going on, and the real action was in the crowd, with flags and fireworks and kids playing soccer. As if to underscore that l'équipe française wasn't winning just because of referee error (unlike just about everybody else), Zinedine Zidane, my favorite player, made a beautiful goal in the 91st minute of play.
But I know a certain team from South America that's going to try to keep Les Bleus from advancing any further.
As for me, I'm not going to get much sleep tonight: the noise outside is still going on. It was kind of scary leaving the stadium. People weren't allowed to bring glass bottles inside, so they were all stacked helter skelter right outside the doors for when all the fans came rushing out screaming....
But I know a certain team from South America that's going to try to keep Les Bleus from advancing any further.
As for me, I'm not going to get much sleep tonight: the noise outside is still going on. It was kind of scary leaving the stadium. People weren't allowed to bring glass bottles inside, so they were all stacked helter skelter right outside the doors for when all the fans came rushing out screaming....
