Paris and Back in 26 Hours

Saturday morning my alarm went of at 3:30 am. Breakfast at 4:00. Then nine of us - six South Africans, two Americans and one German - piled into a rented van and drove seven hours to Paris to watch South Africa versus England in the Rugby World Cup championship match. After a quick walking tour of the city - the Notre Dame Cathedral, a walk through the Louvre (we didn't go inside), the Arc d'Triumph - we finished at the Eifel Tower and hung out in the public viewing area. In a small enclave in front of the large screen, about 50 or so South African fans reveled ina sea of 20,000 drunken Englishmen. But, if I learned anything about rugby football, its fans are fun-loving and, for the most part, civil. Not civil in the sense that includes sober, though. I've never seen so much beer consumed or wasted (sprayed in the air and doused on each other). But, after the match, every English fan we encountered greeted us with "congratulations, well played." I can't imagine American football fans treating rivals with such civility. Following the match, we retuned to the van. Apparenly it went smoothely; I slept the whole way. We arrived home 26 hours after we departed. Paris was beautiful. Interesting. But, dirtier than I expected, and many of the cathedrals we visited were sadly run down. At any rate, Paris is still a beautiful city. One might spend a year there and still not experience everything properly.