Allez les Bleus

My guess is that most of you have no idea that the Rugby World Cup is currently taking place in France (and sometimes in Wales, although I have no idea why). Last night the French team beat the New Zealand team, which is called in French "Les All Blacks" since their jerseys are all black. The New Zealand team was the favorite to win the whole thing so the upset was very exciting in France. There's something different about sports in Europe. I know people in America get very excited about sport, but here it seems much more public because people are all in bars watching and out in the streets. I don't give a hoot about rugby, of course, but my apartment is just above a Scottish pub so on game nights, I don't get to sleep until about 2 am. Last night was much worse. There may have been cars set on fire or something, but all I heard were screams and cars honking their horns until about 4 am.

The France/New Zealand matchup was seemingly foreordained by a television commercial sponsored by Toyota. I've seen it several times but can't quite figure out if it is racist or not. I'll let you take a look and tell me what you think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7lqUOjxj7k

The more interesting thing last night was that they held what they call the "nuit blanche" or 'white night' where all of the museums in Paris were free and open until about 2 am. I went to the Centre Pompidou to see a film with some friends and then wandered around the museum in the middle of the night. It was pretty awesome. Especially with that museum, since I have, on previous visits, not been so impressed with the modern art. A and I visited it a couple of summers ago and he had to explain to me why a room with a theme of 'white' (where of course all the pieces in the room were white) was important or interesting. It's much better after a couple of glasses of wine and late night tomfoolery.

My other escapade yesterday (while avoiding writing my grant proposals, which are killing me) was to visit the Père Lachaise cemetery. I have never actually been, but have wanted to on many previous visits to Paris. There are lots of famous people buried there, including Oscar Wilde, and lots of other writers. Jim Morrison used to be buried there, and it was fairly hilarious to watch the American tourists trying to find the place where he used to be. I ended up realizing that I was very distressed by this and by the whole fact of pilgrimmages to famous people's tombs so you can leave crap and dead flowers on them. It's very strange and I wish someone could explain to me why this happens.