Tales of Two Cities

Mon Dieu!

I was amused to read this article in today's on-line Washington Post.  It seems that jogging in public is totally unsuitable for the serious intellectual.  Or is it that, to be taken seriously as an intellectual, you shouldn't jog in public?  Whatever, it is yet another American export that apparently sets some French teeth on edge. 

Upset Victory

I know you have all been dying to know what happened at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the most prestigious horse race on the Continent, so  here are the results from Sunday's race.

The winner:  Rail Link, a three-year old from Great Britain, owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah and trained by the leading French trainer, André Fabre.

Rail Link, who went off at 25 to 1, easily beat the favorite, Japanese four-year old, Deep Impact, who finished third.  Last year's winner, Hurricane Run, also trained by M. Fabre, came in fourth.  Pride, the six- year old French mare (14 to 1 at the starting gate), finished second just a neck behind the winner. 

Nice payoffs for two horses that were not even considered serious contenders out of the gate, n'est-ce pas?

Photo  of the winner and his tearful jockey, Stephane Pasquier, a kid from the projects, is from BBC News online.

And They're Off

Tomorrow is the 85th running of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at the Longchamp racecourse in the Bois de Boulogne.  Alas, we have a prior engagement and will not be putting in an appearance this year.

The field is the smallest since 1946, down to 8 as of Saturday morning from the original 117 entries.    Word is that a spoiler - Japanese  champion, Deep Impact - may make the race more exciting than usual.  The field also includes a 6-year old mare trying to break into the boy's club, a horse described in the International Herald Tribune as "an aging femme fatale."  (The song, Ascot Gavotte, from My Fair Lady keeps running through my head.)

I'll report the results here.  Meanwhile, I took the above photo a few days ago from Gerard's car.  It shows part of a huge billboard publicizing the race.  The ad appears all over Paris at the moment, notably in the métro, but this version intrigued me because the bridle on the billboard looks real.

At Last I Can Sleep at Night ...

.... though I am shocked, deeply shocked.  Marco Materazzi, the Italian soccer player who was on the receiving end of the infamous head butt in the finals of the World Cup finals in July, has finally revealed what he said to provoke the violent retribution.  My delicate sensibilities won't allow me to repeat it but you can read the whole ugly truth (as told by Materazzi) here. 

Zizou, How Could You?

Les Bleus, France's soccer team, had an amazing 2006 World Cup.  After confounding the naysayers by lasting beyond the first round, the team went on to defeat the favorite, Brazil, in the quarter finals.  When they made it to the finals, we were, naturellement,  fervently hoping for a French victory.

The past couple of years have been hard for France.  The voters expressed their discontent with government policy by refusing to ratify the EU Constitution. Last summer, Paris lost its bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics and with it the anticipated infrastructure development and jobs required to provide venues for the games.  Fatal fires in downtown Paris "hotels" housing immigrants and unrest in the banlieus have exposed serious social problems.  In the spring of this year, manifestations against employment reform left the government with little power to make progress in solving France's problems.

France could have used the victory.  As someone observed, France needed to feel lucky again.

But it was not lucky.  Towards the end of the game that would be decided by a kick, the French team's captain, Zinédine Zidane (known affectionately as Zizou) forcefully head butted an Italian player who had provoked him.  It was a shocking display of poor sportsmanship, even assuming, as I do, that the provocation was severe. Zidane was ejected from the game and, in the crucial final minutes, "Les Bleus" were deprived of both their captain's leadership and his kicking ability.

Of course, we will never know if the game would have ended differently without the head butting incident.  Both teams played hard through 90 minutes of regulation time and two 15-minute overtimes.  The players were tired.  Either team could have won and for the other team, the loss would have been honorable.  Until the head butting incident, I was hoping that the winner would be France.  As it turned out, it would have felt wrong if France had been the winner.  And that is truly sad. 

The World Cup

We watched the beginning of the final game of the soccer World Cup while having a late brunch at Ciao Bella, a local Italian Restaurant.  It is a tribute to the growing interest in the sport that all of the bars in the restaurants on Newbury Street were tuned to the game.  This photograph was taken in the early minutes of play before either team had scored.

Note for the photographers among you:  This picture was taken without flash at f5.6 and 1/40 second with my new Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens.  Initially I had some doubts about the lens, but am liking it better and better.  Once the lens and I are a bit further along in the "getting to know you" phase I will share details.