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!

A Friend in the Louvre

I kept telling myself to go to the Louvre Museum, but it seemed to me to require the dedication of en entire day, and of course an entirely free day is a rare thing indeed. So, I finally just bought an annual pass, in fact a membership in the Societé des Amis du Louvre, or Group of Friends of the Louvre, so I could take my time and appreciate all there is to offer at a leisurely pace, on a whim even. One Sunday I was leaving after a couple hours in the section of Egyptian artifacts (note: a couple hours is not enough to see the Egyptian collection!) and I passed this sculpture set into the wall. It faces several others that are about 10 feet tall, and is related to a story about a father and son. But when I saw it, I thought "That's exactly how I feel after a day trying to draw presentation schematics using MS Powerpoint!"

Fruit Salad-Crêpe

Today I was feeling really hungry in the afternoon, around 4 pm, I'm sure you know what I mean, and also sick and tired of looking at my computer. So I walked down to my favorite crêperie on the rue Mouffetard and had one of the recent additions to their menu of crêpes. It was the standard crêpe smothered with Nutella, then wrapped around a mixture of fresh fruit: kiwi, oranges, apple, strawberry, and probably other fruits I didn't identify while thoroughly enjoying it. It had the taste of a fruit-in-chocolate fondue combined with the soft eggy-pancake texture of the traditional street-vendor crêpe. It's wonderful to eat in Paris in the summertime!