Les & I have just returned from a 2 day, action-packed visit to Lyon, France's second largest city. We don't really know why, but we don't think we've ever been there before. It's a beautiful city, & we went there to reconnect with college friends. We had no idea, when we'd planned this short trip, how beautiful & interesting the city would be, nor that we would have the unforgetable experience of celebrating, with the "Lyonnais", France's soccer team winning the World cup. Vivent les Bleus!

Neither one of us have ever paid much attention to soccer, but if the country where you spend 3 months of the year gets into the World Cup, & continues to win, it becomes very hard to ignore it! We managed to catch at least a part of the first games, then one half of the quarter final & semi final games, & the entire finals. We were so very lucky the way it all "played" out. It was absolutely magical.

We arrived at the Lyon train station at 4:00 pm on Sunday, July 15, to threatening rain clouds. A taxi arrived immediately, & swept us off to our hotel, with a few raindrops on the windshield. We checked in, freshened up a bit, & went downstairs to "le Club", where we got a front row seat in the tv watching area just in time for the kick off (is that what they call it?"). Outside, it started to pour.

I really don't know this game well, but here's my brief description of how it went. France scored quickly, but Croatia looked pretty tough, & soon enough, scored to tie the game. By the time the score was 4-2, we felt pretty postive about France's chances. As the game continued, France was really appearing as a well-trained machine, with every single player working very hard, each & every member working together, focused on victory. Here's how the Guardian said it: ""The cornerstone of Deschamp's success with les Bleus, was that no individual was more important than the balance or unity of the team. Deschamps was able to mould an effective, if pragmatic, unit that supported & played for each other."

By the finals, we'd learned a bit about the team. Very diverse, these 23 men, from the 19 year old Kylian Mbappe (a real French favorite) to the 25 year old Antoine Griezmann, who went from his adopted France to Spain at 14, when no French team would take on a "little scrappy blond". But my favorite was Paul Pogba, who normally plays for Manchester United, a real master at using his head. His head bounces are ferocious, mighty & long, due to his strength & agility, as well as to his height. All three of these fine players (and more!) were immigrants to France, & were star players in the final game of the World Cup.

The sun came out just before the game finished around 7:00, so we decided we absolutely had to get outside into the honking, cheering, rowdy crowds. We headed over to "Presqu'ile", the "almost island" between the Rhone & the Saone Rivers in Lyon. As we walked along, this is what Chicago must have felt like when the Cubs won the World Series, after all those years of "maybe next year" that Chicago had suffered. The only big difference here was a "country win", not a city win, & the French were as starved for it as Cub fans were 2 years ago.

We can assure you that the French know how to celebrate a win like this as well as Cub fans do! It was so very exciting to be there, in France's second largest city, to share in their exuberance & their utter joy. We ambled along with fans of all ages, adorned or draped with anything red, white, & blue, & painted tri-color faces, wishing we had a French flag to wave or a red, white & blue wig to wear. Check out our album "Les Bleus, Champions du Monde" for pictures of this incredible night.

Eventually, we arrived at a nice street full of brasseries, & chose a table outside, first row from the crowds, near the crossroads of two active streets. This proved to be a perfect place to be IN the crowd up close, with people parading in both directions, always coming or going, singing, or chanting. At one point in time, we found ourselved singing as well. The highlight for me (former French teacher) was when our entire table was singing "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem, with the street revelers. What a thrill that was!

Next morning's headline on the front page of "le Figaro", a well-known French newspaper, read "Le Jour du Gloire est Arrive", a line from the "La Marseillaise". Yes, indeed the Day of Glory did arrive for Les Bleus. The editorial accompanying the picture (& this blog too), explained their triumph & the importance of it, this way--I hope my translation is not too cumbersome.

"The day of glory has arrived. Even the bells of Notre Dame rang to celebrate the victory. All the superlatives are permitted. It's not only a team, but all the people draped in the tricolor who feel today like the Champions of the World.

In a time when individualism prevails, this victory became, in the last few games, a collective project. The football part of it was pure joy. But so was the patriotism, unique to this sport.

Now it's time to give to Didier Deschamps & his 23 gladiators the due we owe them. They were realists against the brilliant Croatians, crushers of the Russian & the English. They didn't win this competition by chance...

This team were picked for the quality of their work, their talent, their tactical intelligence. They were discovered at their youngest ages, before being formed, then brought up in the culture of winning. Their succes is thus due to the excellence of the French education system--Mbappe, Griezmann, Lloris, Varan, Pavard & others are the living proof.

We'd love to see this model transported to all domains, to all children, in all our territories. We'd hope for this state of mind, willing & demanding, even elitist, to spread to the entire population.

As after the victory of 1998, 20 years ago, we'll remember the memory of euphoria forever. But if, even more, this memory would open a collective ambition, that of thinking beyond oneself, the magic would be total. "

Well said, Yve Therard of Le Figaro! And well done, Coach Deschamps! You obviously took a lesson from your participation (as player) in the 1998 game, the last time France won the World Cup. That team, as well is THIS team, was diverse, in fact they called it the "Black-Blanc-Beurr (Black-White-Arab) team.

As a footnote, let me add that this editorial is really a nod to France's "border liberalism". Here's what Mohit Priyadarshi, on Inquistir says:

"The win becomes all the moire poignant when one considers that among the Western powers, France has faced the worst brunt of terrorism in the last 4 years, being at the center of 2 of the world's worst attacks...But while America & some other nations in Europe have become tight-fisted & answered the call to nativist populism, France has collectively rejected that path, & the result is there for all to see...

Had the French not been so accommodating of people of different races & nationalities, this French team would not be what it is today. In fact, a number of the most prominent players are sons of parents who immigrated to this country...as, for example:

Antoine Greizmaan (father from Germany, mother from Portugal)

Kylian Mbappe (father from Cameroom, mother from Algeria)

Paul Pogba (parents from Guinea)"

and more...

Wow, I am impressed! As a firm believer in the value of immigration, I could NOT agree more. Especially as Les & I are about to leave, in 2 days for Lithuania, from where his great-grandfather & great-grandmother emigrated in the early 1900s. And in August, we are off to retrace the steps of my English "people", from where they lived in Derbyshire & Yorkshire, to Liverpool, their point of departure for the USA.

Vive la France! Et Vive Lyon! We will be back next summer to explore their wonderful museums (we only had time for 2!) & dig into their culinary delights.

And, by the way, Vivent les CUBS! We've got our fingers crossed!

Elise & Les