Living in France these days also means constantly being hammered by the effort to get the 2012 Olympic games to Paris. Apart from inherent annoyance, the anti sporting nature of Parisians is made most clear by the choice of St. Quentin en Yvelines for the velodrome. Choosing this sterile suburb (I had the misfortune of staying near there for a month) which is 25km away from Paris simply states: "Keep cycling out of our city!" In the meantime, there was a perfect site available in Vincennes, namely La Cipale, a practically unused velodrome in the Bois de Vincennes, which could have been rebuilt so that the velodrome would have been at the gates of Paris.
St.Quentin en Yvelines is the start/finish of Paris-Brest-Paris every four years.
Quoted message said:
Living in France these days also means constantly being hammered by the effort to get the 2012 Olympic games to Paris. Apart from inherent annoyance, the anti sporting nature of Parisians is made most clear by the choice of St. Quentin en Yvelines for the velodrome. Choosing this sterile suburb (I had the misfortune of staying near there for a month) which is 25km away from Paris simply states: "Keep cycling out of our city!" In the meantime, there was a perfect site available in Vincennes, namely La Cipale, a practically unused velodrome in the Bois de Vincennes, which could have been rebuilt so that the velodrome would have been at the gates of Paris.
<[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
Living in France these days also means constantly being hammered by the effort to get the 2012 Olympic games to Paris. Apart from inherent annoyance, the anti sporting nature of Parisians is made most clear by the choice of St. Quentin en Yvelines for the velodrome. Choosing this sterile suburb (I had the misfortune of staying near there for a month) which is 25km away from Paris simply states: "Keep cycling out of our city!" In the meantime, there was a perfect site available in Vincennes, namely La Cipale, a practically unused velodrome in the Bois de Vincennes, which could have been rebuilt so that the velodrome would have been at the gates of Paris.
-ilan
I would be very surprised if Paris got the Olympics after Chirac's resent comments
Living in France these days also means constantly being hammered by the effort to get the 2012 Olympic games to Paris. Apart from inherent annoyance, the anti sporting nature of Parisians is made most clear by the choice of St. Quentin en Yvelines for the velodrome. Choosing this sterile suburb (I had the misfortune of staying near there for a month) which is 25km away from Paris simply states: "Keep cycling out of our city!"
Well, that probably did it then. London got the games.
Well, that probably did it then. London got the games.
I attribute it to the following comment of Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe, when asked what he thought of the London bid: "My grandmother was English and she taught me a very important English word -- fair play."
Anyway, so far, Delanoe is the only French person I've heard interviewed who actually wasn't bitter with insinuations about London's win.
-ilan
Stewart Fleming a écrit :
Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:
Delanoe, when asked what he thought of the London bid: "My grandmother was English and she taught me a very important English word -- fair play."
They threw the bid out because he couldn't count?
Has anyone seen where Finland voted on the final selection? With the vote going 54-52 Chirac's arrogance this week could've very easily have cost Paris the games. Going to be interesting to see how this plays out, but I really don't think it matters because Chirac, Schroeder, and Bush are all done, while Blair may hang on and Putin will do whatever it takes. Bill C Bill C
Anyway, so far, Delanoe is the only French person I've heard interviewed who actually wasn't bitter with insinuations about London's win.
-ilan
Stewart Fleming a écrit :
Quoted message said:
[email hidden] wrote: > Delanoe, when asked what he thought of the London bid: "My > grandmother was English and she taught me a very important > English word -- fair play."
They threw the bid out because he couldn't count?
Has anyone seen where Finland voted on the final selection? With the vote going 54-52 Chirac's arrogance this week could've very easily have cost Paris the games. Going to be interesting to see how this plays out, but I really don't think it matters because Chirac, Schroeder, and Bush are all done, while Blair may hang on and Putin will do whatever it takes. Bill C Bill C
vote going 54-52 Chirac's arrogance this week could've very easily have cost Paris the games.
I don't know what you're talking about. Chirac seemed just fine to me. On the other hand, the reaction that I saw on the post TDF show is that no one mentioned the possibility that London had a good bid as well, which is arrogant.
In my opinion, the horrible Luc Besson promo movie didn't help. Amazingly, it starts out with the music from Ride of the Valkyries on an approach shot to Paris, which seemed to me more of a reference to 1870 and 1940 than anything else, and those are not exactly high points in French history.
vote going 54-52 Chirac's arrogance this week could've very easily have cost Paris the games.
I don't know what you're talking about. Chirac seemed just fine to me. On the other hand, the reaction that I saw on the post TDF show is that no one mentioned the possibility that London had a good bid as well, which is arrogant.
In my opinion, the horrible Luc Besson promo movie didn't help. Amazingly, it starts out with the music from Ride of the Valkyries on an approach shot to Paris, which seemed to me more of a reference to 1870 and 1940 than anything else, and those are not exactly high points in French history.
There were a couple of stories about the food gaff. In one of them that I can't find again quickly they interviewed some of the Finnish delegation and they indicated it would likely have an effect on their vote. Putting people down isn't a good way to gather votes. There was also a really good tongue in cheek piece about the Franco/Brit rivalry over the last 100 years in one of the papers. The basic theme was that it was OK for them to beat on each other since that was just the way it is, but criticism from any other sources is taken as a real insult by both. Pretty humorous, when I find it again I'll pass it a long. Bill C
vote going 54-52 Chirac's arrogance this week could've very easily have cost Paris the games.
I don't know what you're talking about. Chirac seemed just fine to me. On the other hand, the reaction that I saw on the post TDF show is that no one mentioned the possibility that London had a good bid as well, which is arrogant.
In my opinion, the horrible Luc Besson promo movie didn't help. Amazingly, it starts out with the music from Ride of the Valkyries on an approach shot to Paris, which seemed to me more of a reference to 1870 and 1940 than anything else, and those are not exactly high points in French history.
There were a couple of stories about the food gaff. In one of them that I can't find again quickly they interviewed some of the Finnish delegation and they indicated it would likely have an effect on their vote. Putting people down isn't a good way to gather votes. There was also a really good tongue in cheek piece about the Franco/Brit rivalry over the last 100 years in one of the papers. The basic theme was that it was OK for them to beat on each other since that was just the way it is, but criticism from any other sources is taken as a real insult by both. Pretty humorous, when I find it again I'll pass it a long. Bill C
Quoted: Blair took a gamble by flying to Singapore, and glad-handed an estimated 30 IOC members himself.
Meanwhile, his French counterpart Jacques Chirac laid into British and Finnish food.
Chirac was left eating his words. And one suspects revenge may have been sweet for the two delegates from Finland, whose votes will have been important in a tight contest.
Meanwhile, his French counterpart Jacques Chirac laid into British and Finnish food.
Chirac was left eating his words. And one suspects revenge may have been sweet for the two delegates from Finland, whose votes will have been important in a tight contest.
You hate to think that a few "off the cuff" remarks, that were never intended to be made public could turn such an important vote one way or the other.
However, it could very possibly have been the deciding factor.
Dans le message de news:[email hidden], Jack Hollis <[email hidden]> a réfléchi, et puis a déclaré :
Quoted message said:
Bill C said:
Meanwhile, his French counterpart Jacques Chirac laid into British and Finnish food.
Chirac was left eating his words. And one suspects revenge may have been sweet for the two delegates from Finland, whose votes will have been important in a tight contest.
You hate to think that a few "off the cuff" remarks, that were never intended to be made public could turn such an important vote one way or the other.
However, it could very possibly have been the deciding factor.
But bad food or not, London have the games.
I don't know about the bad food. I go there for Chinese and Indian, rather than take a chance on the junk you find in France. -- Sandy Verneuil-sur-Seine *******
La vie, c'est comme une bicyclette, il faut avancer pour ne pas perdre l'équilibre. -- Einstein, A.
Anyway, so far, Delanoe is the only French person I've heard interviewed who actually wasn't bitter with insinuations about London's win.
The most bizarre being Mme. de Fontenay who, on the TDF post stage show commented that it was the English who burned Jeanne d'Arc.
If you are not French, then you probably have no idea who Mme. de Fontenay is, and rightly so. She organizes the Miss France contest and keeps an iron grip on her charges, e.g., to banish them if they model without enough clothes, which happens all the time.
The most bizarre being Mme. de Fontenay who, on the TDF post stage show commented that it was the English who burned Jeanne d'Arc.
Phil and Paul mentioned this as the race was going past the Chateau de Gien in today's stage. But they did mention that there was a French judge on the panel. How many years ago was it? Time to let go...
Regarding the Phil & Paul show, it's been bugging me for a while now. Often when Paul is commentating, you can just make out Phil in the background doing DIFFERENT commentary. Is that for their video series or another broadcast service or what? Regardless, their commentary is driving me nuts as it always used to.
I don't know about the bad food. I go there for Chinese and Indian, rather than take a chance on the junk you find in France.
I'm not a big fan of Chinese food but the Indian food in England is first rate. However I'm not sure you can call Indian food English food just because you get it in England.
I just heard the reaction of David Douillet, the French Judo champion, who has tried to build a reputation as a "gentle giant", despite every indication that he is a horrible person: "It's terrible what happened, but imagine if we had got the games, can you imagine that happening in Paris?"
