Allez les Bleus!

This is my favorite commercial right now. It's (obviously) for the World Cup and is basically showing an English guy, Swiss woman (and man?) and a Spanish guy all chanting "Allez les Bleus" in support of the French team (les Bleus) just so that they can get a ride in the Toyota.

It was a very tense atmosphere here tonight when France played Togo. If they didn't beat Togo they would have been eliminated (much like the Americans had been a few days earlier). The French team has been playing so badly that I've taken to chanting "Allez les nuls" instead of "Allez les bleus." This week at dinner (now eaten in front of a huge screen showing the matches) I was joking at how poorly France had played in a previous match and one of my French friends just looked at me with a very straight face and said "Am I laughing Laura? There are some things you just don't joke about ."

Since a lot of people get pretty riled up about the French team in the World Cup I've taken to instigating a bit. This week I kept asking my students "so who are you going to support when France loses on Friday?" If ever they come back with a comment like "well the Americans are already eliminated" I have the perfect response: "C'est normal, we're pretty crappy at football, nobody expects us to win. But France....you guys won in '98...."

It works everytime!

France is playing Spain next. I'm not actually convinced that they're going to win, but it's going to be LOTS of fun to watch with the Frenchies.