Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 1998 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

July 12, 1998

Coupe du Monde 98

Paris Goes Crazy

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: Paris, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

The hotels are all overpriced and full. Flags everywhere. Hair colors of blue-white-red are in fashion. Nationalism is at a record high. That is "Coupe du Monde" translated into everyday life. At least the airport CDG is not on strike. That was called off just days before the Soccer World Cup started.

The weather was pleasantly warm. My quarters were in Saint Germain. It was great for evening strolls. Famous cafes line the street there. Cafe de Flores is said to be one of the best known. The fare was traditional. Croissants and coffee for breakfast. For dinner Parisian friends from work took me to Brasserie Lipp. A well-established place right on Saint Germain Boulevard. Artists and writers like Jean Paul Sartre and Simone Beauvior are said to have spent time here. Cafe de Flores, across the street, have been refuge to Hemingway and Picasso. If that is true, I can’t say. I think it is a bit funny as a bar in Barcelona also claims Hemingway and Picasso as former regular guests. Looks like these artists do nothing but travel the world and spend all their time in cafes and bars. Sounds like a nice life to an outsider.

The food at Lipp was great. I was astonished at how much the French eat at night. 3 courses seem to be a must. I thought only Americans have dinner as their main dish while Europeans tend to eat a solid lunch and an average dinner. I guess I am wrong. Dinners are long and big here. Appetizer, main course, dessert, optional cheese, coffee (usually an espresso). Next day’s dinner with Veronique, a friend of a friend, wasn’t any different. Long and filling. I also realized that French love meat and fish. A big salad for dinner is not the norm. After living the French life for a few days during the week, i.e. stuffing myself, I was looking forward to live my life on the weekend (vegetables, bread, milk and fruit).

Wednesday night, the French team played against Croatia in the semi-finals. After France won, all hell broke lose. The match was over by 11pm. An hour later, an unbelievable 500,000 fans gathered at Champs Elysees to celebrate the victory of the "Blue", the French. Flags everywhere, face-painted fans doing the wave up and down Champs Elysees, honking, traffic chaos, people dancing on cars, people jumping into the fountains, ... You get the picture. It was all a very friendly atmosphere and people were well behaved, giving high-fives and some of them even kissing each other. When I went home from people watching, people were still enjoying their dinner at 1 am.

On Saturday I just strolled around. I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty on the Seine island north west of the Eiffel Tower. To my disappointment the smaller twin of the copy in New York was on loan to Japan for a year to celebrate Japanese-French friendship. One my stroll along the Seine I also passed by the site where admirers of Lady Di place their flowers and farewell cards. It is at the end of the tunnel in which the event happened. Even today people come here to mourn or just to look around. It was completely unexpected. I had not anticipated finding any visitors so many months after her accident. The whole site is covered with notes written onto the concrete pavement, the railing, etc. There was no need to go into the tunnel to the now famous 18th pillar where concrete proved harder than steel, aluminum and plastic, even if that impacts at 120 mph. Most of the notes implied that this was not just an accident. People have vivid imagination I guess. This scene brought back memories. I was in London only roughly 10 days after Lady Di died. All people just seemed to talk about one thing. Kensington Palace was and Hyde Park was littered with thousands of flowers, teddy bears, postcards and signs. They had candle light vigils and played "Like a candle in the wind" from Elton John. It was all a bit moving and a bit overdone. One impression, however, I remember very vividly because it hit me like a sledgehammer. One of the cards had something like "Princess of Hearts, we were not worthy of you" written on it. It upset me and the only comment I silently formed in my head was "Speak for yourself". People admire her so much, they degrade themselves. Get real; she is just a person like you and me. She had some special qualities. Fine, I agree. But so have you and I.

I was glad to get away from the unofficial Lady Di memorial site. The Adidas Football Parc cheered me up. The small final had Croatia and The Netherlands play for third place. Having nothing better to do I decided to watch it on big screen in a big crowd. The Adidas Football Parc was just the right set up. A 1000 people gathered for the event. My favorite team lost. The French of course didn’t care. They all just thought of one thing: Sunday, July 12. El final.

On Sunday I decided to do something for my underdeveloped intellect. Having been 3 times in Paris before I had never made it to the Louvre. Fourth time around I thought it was fitting to do something stimulating for my gray cells. Getting in was half the fun. The line was as long as in Disney Land. I had to wait an hour, but with the bright warm sunshine it wasn’t so bad. Over the centuries they have gathered quite a few unique pieces. Best known is of course the Mona Lisa. It is, however, behind inch-thick bullet proof glass that causes shadow images and reflections. Even after you fight yourself through the camera and video recorder touting crowd to the first row you still don’t see much. You see some reflections of yourself and some fuzzy Mona Lisa. The bullet proof glass gives you the feeling you are wearing someone else’s glasses and the painting is out of focus. In this specific case it’s better to pay Bill and see the electronic image. Interestingly this is the only picture behind bullet-proof glass. There is a lot to see and I focused on the antique middle-eastern art and found the pieces from Mesopotamia the most impressive ones. Some of these pieces were huge. Having seen the capital from Apadana gives me a new understanding for the sheer size of their palaces. Breath-taking.

As the hours passed the count down was started. Only 1h 30min till 9pm, the kick-off of the final match: Brazil against France. France had never won. Should they win on their home turf? Military and police were beefed up in the public transport areas. TV showed French and Brazilian supports shaking hands to calm the masses, as there had been some violence in earlier rounds of the championship. To my surprise there were a lot of Brazil-supporters. I didn’t see the game. But France won 3:0. Having seen how Paris was after winning the semi-finals, I can image how Paris will be tonight. Paris undoubtedly goes crazy.