A Couple of Familiar Names

Sports News, Short and Sweet

Paris:– Monday, 6. June 2005:– Yesterday the sky hung low from clouds that looked dark and ugly but did not in the end open up and pour all over a million Parisians and other folks gathered on the Champs–Elysées for a bit of Olympic foretaste – before Paris is even awarded the games and seven years in advance if it gets them.

Given such an event, my short term forecast for yesterday was rain, rain, rain, and I stayed home wrapped in a ratty bathrobe, thinking of pots of tea and tasty cookies. Every half hour I looked out of the window and wondered where the rain was. The cookies, I knew, were still in the Monoprix.

Maybe it came late. It poured for a while today. Big drops pearled on the leaves outside my window like green ladybugs. This is going to have to do me because the leaves are so dense that I can't see the street anymore, or see if the windshield wipers on cars are swishing from side to side.

For the next few days, if I can believe tonight's TV–weather news, the air here should be fairly clear of rain, fog, clouds, smog, smoke and low–flying aircraft. For tomorrow expect sunny skies everywhere around here except for some slop up near the northern frontier and below the country's mid–line. It's also expected to be cool overnight and no great heatwave in the day, with a high of only 18 degrees.

For Wednesday and Thursday you can sort of expect really simple weather in the form of one great sunball over everything except those few and far apart exceptions that will be nowhere near here. No winds – did they forget? – no clouds and high temperatures at 20 and 21 degrees. It's not cooking, but it'll do.

On the other Atlantic side Jim Auman sends a personally–observed and revolutionary view of weather, that might require a bit of history to figure out. Here is Jim's detailed report with the forecast:–

For the past few months, spring in La Grosse Pommeland has been fleeting. Even the few warm days have been touched by either the ghost of Germinal or the foretaste of Brumaire. But this weekend it has definitely been either Prairial or Messidor, but since it really hasn't been hot or sticky, the spirit of Thermidor hovered in the air with temperatures reaching the upper 80's anglograd – 32–33 eurograd – and sunny. Monday threatens with the definite appearance of Thermidor and temps 90 or higher anglograd – 34+ eurograd – and sun. The rest of the week will be partly cloudy with the reappearance of Prairial with temperatures around 80 anglograd – 26–27 eurograd.

Café Life

It seems to me I read somewhere that nobody outside downtown Europe knows the names of any French politicians other than Jacques Chirac, and maybe José Bové, who is the peasant's spokesman and not a politician. So that you can impress people at parties you could mention that the outgoing prime minister was Jean–Pierre Raffarin. It is possibly the last time you'll see his name here, so memorize it now if you're into trivia. And one quote – "We need a republic of common sense."

The new prime minister's name is Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin, or Dominique de Villepin for short. He is officially the number one prime minister. For a while last week news organizations were a bit confused about terminology, hinting that there were to be two prime ministers, but this would be an oxymoron. Instead, almost equal, nearly 'bis,' is Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy–Bocsa, who is known simply as Nicolas Sarkozy, or 'Sarko.'

There is little affection lost between Sarkozy and de Villepin. While the latter's ambitions are more circumspect, Nicolas Sarkozy makes no secret of his desire to become president of France in 2007. This may turn into his personal 'Catch–22.' He should take time to remember another quote by Raffarin, "Our road is straight but there's a steep hill."

Quite by surprise – to me – Paris turned the Champs–Elysées into a track and field, swimming and sailing, Olympic site on Sunday and a million residents turned up to see the free sports under gray skies. The city's magazine had a sketch of this on its cover, and while very–well done, it looks virtual. But according to the TV–news report it was really real verging on the surreal. The swimming pool was long enough for laps and the kids were really sailing, with the Arc de Triomphe in the background. It should happen every Sunday. Then, just to test luck to the limit, 150,000 then hiked over to the Champ de Mars where there was a free pop music concert in the evening.

On tonight's TV–news there was a report about an Olympic Committee appreciation of the candidates' applications for the summer games in 2012. It suggested that London and Paris are the leading contenders. Apparently Paris impressed the Olympic inspectors by having a transport strike and a huge street demonstration on the day they inspected the town. While you are still tuned in, be aware that Paris is hosting a baseball championship from Tuesday, 21. June until Sunday, 26. June.

Usual or not, the summer sales announced to begin Friday, 24. June and continue until about Saturday, 23. July, are still scheduled. It just goes to show that if you can't afford the full price for a tiny bikini there must be moreto it for less than meets the eye.