Allez Les Bleus!

Until last night, I had been decidedly underwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the French for their World Cup team. A colleague told me that, after their exit from the cup after the first round in 2002, the French people were pessimistically expecting failure, and kept their hopes down to avoid disappointment. For last night's huitième de finale, I joined thousands of other soccer fans to watch the game at Charlety Stadium, an older stadium which is used mainly for track and field events and happens to be a 3-minute walk from my apartment. The stadium was opened to the public for free, funded by the City of Paris, and the match was shown on the big screen (it was not so-o big). The crowd was made up mostly of teenagers and families with children, and it was lots of fun to see. The game was actually pretty exciting, although I listened to the radio broadcast at the same time to supplement my weak knowledge of the two teams. I went home after the halftime and listened to the game on the radio, and then of course I was obliged to listen to the honking horns and cries of joy from the street. I think, finally, that the French now believe in their team. I'm still sticking with my pick of the host team to win it all, though. And maybe one day I'll find it interesting enough to watch a whole game!