31 May 2006

N’IMPORTE QUOI

It’s not often I agree with ‘professional critics’ but I went to see the Da Vinci code recently and the Telegraph critic, for once, is right: “the pair (Tom/Langdon and Audrey/Neveu) ought to be wearing T-shirts saying ‘Stupide’ and ‘Je suis avec Stupide.’” It doesn’t really rise above one-dimensional cardboard. Now, X-Men on the other hand …

30 May 2006

LA FORCE DE L’ART

I met up with one of my lovely friends who was over in Paris for the week-end and, since the queues for the Orangerie still stretch half-way round the Tuileries, we headed off to the Grand Palais for the ‘Expo Villepin’: La Force de L’Art. It’s been championed and supported by Prime Minister de Villepin and “contains 350 works by 200 artists who are French or reside in France.” The very least you can say about it is that it’s eclectic.

In the comments book, some witty person has made an entry signed Nicolas Sarkozy (the Home Affairs Minister): "Great restoration of the Grand Palais. Pity someone left all this junk around. It's time to clean it up. Out with Mr. de Villepin."

29 May 2006

PREPARING FOR THE RUGBY WORLD CUP

After the VI Nations this year, Thomas Castaignède said: “If we (France) were mediocre, everyone else in Europe has a fair bit to worry about.” However, with the re-shuffling of coaches and some new young players, there are promising signs for the future. Yesterday, England won 46-19 against the Barbarians! Still room for improvement but very promising indeed :)

28 May 2006

MORE RUGBY

What a nailbiting, breathtaking day of rugby yesterday was. Stade played Montpellier and won 43–24, scoring six tries, the first from Mauro. At the bottom end of the table, there was a fight to the death in their respective matches about which between Bayonne and Pau would be relegated. Pau are now in the second Pro D2 league.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Channel, there was a thrilling Guinness Premiership Final with the ref saying things to the scrum like: ‘stop messing about!’ It was a well deserved win by Sale.

Now we await Stade’s semi which will be played against Toulouse in Lyon next week-end at 9 o’clock AT NIGHT.

© bbc

27 May 2006

RELATIVITY

It’s true what Einstein said about time when trying to his explain his theory. Life recently has been lived at a very strange pace with speeded moments of watching Munster triumph over Biarritz to win the Heineken Cup punctuated by slow-motion contemplation of the season trying to change from spring to summer (and wondering how on earth south-east England can have a drought order when they have this mythical persistent rain). And now it seems an age to wait before the Guinness Premiership Final and Stade v. Montpellier later today.

26 May 2006

ENCORE LA DIFFERENCE

If you disappeared for a short time and didn’t update your blog, it could ONLY be in France that you would receive emails and texts wondering if you had found a lover! Ha Ha. (It isn’t true.)

16 May 2006

FOR INSPIRATION

14 May 2006

WEEK-END DE RUGBY

Sadly, yesterday was the last game of the season at Jean Bouin but thank goodness last week’s nightmare was forgotten as Stade won 42- 26 against Pau. It was a game of two halves (as ever) and considering it was 27-0 to Stade at half-time, they seemed to nod off a bit in the second half and let in four tries from Pau.

At one point during the first half of the match, Stade were pinned so long down in their own half that a little bird set up camp in the other half and was happily bobbing around, obviously thinking it was quite safe from any thundering action! Luckily Pau couldn’t capitalise on the time spent inside Stade’s 22-metres as Stade defended like mad.

Mirco didn’t have much to do yesterday, having started on the bench, and he just came on about 5 minutes before the end to stretch his legs and do a bit of tackling.

It was also the last game of Christophe Moni, who has been with Stade Français for nine seasons and who incidentally has no hair. At the end of the match, all the players donned bald-y hats and carried him on their shoulders for the tour d’honneur!

© stade.fr

So, one more away match for Stade Français before the semis (and hopefully finals) of the Top 14 and fingers crossed it all drops into place for these important games.

In all, it’s been a good week-end for rugby, with two fantastic Guinness Premiership semi-final games having been played today. So now Sale and Leicester will play each other in the Final at the end of the month. Cool!

13 May 2006

A WORD OF WARNING

© malvaceae.info
Hmm, remind me NOT to drink hibiscus tea for a while, especially before bedtime. While it may have fantastic anti-oxidant properties, it is also quite a powerful diuretic ...

12 May 2006

PARKLIFE

By nature, I’m one of life’s observers rather than one of its talkers (some may well dispute this) and while lazing around in the gardens of Paris, as I have been recently, I’ve been indulging in one of my favourite pastimes: people-watching. All of life is present in these parks, toddlers with their bouncy balls and blowing their bubbles, old people with their sticks, couples snuggling, business people on their busy way, teenagers eating their junk food on the grass, policemen on bikes, and me supposedly studying my herbs! The picture above, taken from the top of the Montparnasse Tower, is of one of my favourite gardens: the Luxembourg!

10 May 2006

SERIAL MSN-ER

The wonders of modern technology mean that the world is indeed a small place and I’m very pleased that, since leaving school, lots of the pupils are keeping in touch with me via MSN. What’s more, they’re trying to do so in English! Vive broadband!

08 May 2006

SPRINGTIME

Well, I never thought I’d say this but I rather think I’ve got too many plants! So much so that I fear that my tiny window balcony is in danger of collapsing. However, spring is definitely here and while pottering, I’ve noticed that the little sparrows across the courtyard are doing what birds and bees do best. In fact, they’re doing it at least six times a minute. I counted. Meanwhile, I’ll just have to content myself with visiting the plants in the Jardin des Plantes in order to satisfy my horticultural addiction.

07 May 2006

HUH!

They lost 28-11.

06 May 2006

THE TOP 14!

Good news: Stade Français have automatically qualified for the semi-finals of the Top 14 (this, thanks to the Bourgoin-Castres match yesterday). Even so, SF still have an away match at Bayonne this evening – come on Stade!

More good news: www.mbergamasco.it have got a lovely new photo of the real Man of the VI Nations! By the way, if anyone speaks Italian and can translate the site for me … ;p

05 May 2006

VIVE LA DIFFERENCE II

Filling in a form recently, I noticed a curious thing which is that whenever the situation applied to me I put a little tick as opposed to my (French) friend, who put a little cross. This struck me as odd since to me a cross means that it doesn’t apply. We wondered whether this meant that English people are generally more positive, and especially so when filling in forms? Hmm, maybe we should have been concentrating on actually filling in the forms ...

03 May 2006

DRESS SENSE

© drew
What is it with French men’s dress sense? I used to think that they were quite dapper but I’ve been observing them for a while now – quite objectively, you understand – and they seem to fall into one of two categories, ‘gay’ or ‘tramp’, whether or not they actually are. I realise this is a sweeping generalisation but honestly the evidence is there. Come on, froggies, pull yourselves together! Even English men can do better! And, come to think of it, so can Italians and they wear orange trousers, for goodness sake!

01 May 2006

MOOGAY

It’s been a très bon week-end! Saturday was the match against Bourgoin, which Stade Français won: 33-7! Unfortunately no try from Mirco this time but I was spoiled with lovely email photos of my chou-chou (merciii!). Mr. Impulsive lived up to his name and paid me a surprise visit for the week-end so we strolled around Montparnasse and enjoyed crêpes brétonnes. Today being the First of May, French people give little bouquets of ‘muguet’ for good luck. And it’s also Mauro’s birthday so Happy Birthday to him ;)

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