Allez les bleus!

If you know me, you'll know that I'm not a sports person. That I'm pretty much the opposite of a sports person. But this country has gotten to me, or the World Cup has gotten to me, and now I've become one of the screaming masses. I watched France trounce (if you can call it trouncing) Portugal in my favorite funky bar on Wednesday, surrounded by cheering (and screaming at the refs) people. Normally I would have been like "Shut up people! Let me drink in peace!" but this is DIFFERENT. This, mes amis, is the Coupe du Monde. And France has hit the finals, which is going to be a Gina's heritage show-down between France and Italy. I will watch on Sunday. And then I may or may not be one of the people in the following pictures-

Place Bellecour- there were flame eater/throwers, people on street signs, people screaming anf singing, people everywhere. And this was only the semis. Also, the guy on the left is being interviewed by some sort of camera person, but I have no idea of how official it was.

Some people take the "matching your accessories to your outfit" rule just a bit too seriously. Unless he really dyed his hair those colors, and that would be a)a really stupid idea and b)actually sort of impressive- how did he get the lines so straight?

Better view of the flame stuff. There were cars coming through all night, honking and waving flags out the window. The back-up was to near chez moi, which is a 20-minute walk away. But the feeling, people, the feeling! This is an entire country getting excited about something. This is people running around carrying flags that are bigger than them. This is the French team being national heroes. I'm definitely in love with Alex, but after goalie Barthez's incredible saves last night, I must say that my affection is a bit shared. Ps don't tell Alex. PPS, I'm just kidding. About the affections, not the telling.