Allez Les Bleus!

Last night was the first football (soccer) match I have attended on European soil. It was an incredible match. Part of the experience of this particular match, was the experience of getting to the stadium. In order to further flex their muscle, the transportation union continued the strike into the weekend in order to create chaos for people trying to get to the match. This is (I use the present tense as the strike is still in effect and could be possibly for up to month as some are predicting) the 2nd strike in as many months as the transportation workers are trying to fight Sarkozy's plan to increase the amount of time required to work before retirement. The transportation workers have to work the least amount of any government workers before retirement. Yet, this small percent of the population has the ability to bring the whole city to its knees. There were riot police all throughout the subway system. The walk ways were so packed with people you did not walk by your own will, but by the will of the person behind you or next to you. Once you started down the corridor, there was no turning back. It was impossible. I had to change trains 4 times in order to get to the stadium. It is normally a straight route from Massy to La Stade de France. It took me nearly 2 and a half hours to make a trip that normally takes about 45 minutes. If it were not for my desire to see this match, there is no way I could have braved this trip on public transportation.
Yet, the match was well worth the journey. You could hear the supporters as we approached the stadium. We turned a block in order to see swarms of people of people covered in red gathered around huge drums lit in this darkest of nights by the glowing of the red flares in the center of the circle. The only color noticeable other than the red, was the green star on many of their backs. This is not a symbol of France. It is a symbol of Morocco, the visitors of tonight's match against the French National Squad in a qualifying match for Euro 08 this summer. Although Morocco was the visiting squad, the preponderance of fans showed up to support them. I am not sure why this is other than the fact that there are many North African immigrants in France and most French supporters only care about matches that really matter.
I was there to support the French, as this is my current country of residence. Wanting to be like the football supporters I had seen on TV, my first purchase was a French national scarf to go with my jersey and blue shoes. Much to my chagrin, I was unable to bring my camera into the Stadium because it looked "to professional." The match included 4 goals and a tie between the two teams. The match was electric as the crowd. In order to keep warm on this coldest of Parisian November nights, we were constantly participating in waves and other full body movements like jumping up and down at the excitement of each of the many goals, slide tackles, or great saves. It was a good thing the match was full of these. I would have liked to see a French win but it was a great match. It took me longer to get home because I had to wait for the night bus that goes back to my town and I was ready by 1:30 AM to sleep after a evening that started nearly 9 hours earlier. Total travel time, 4 hours and 45 minutes. Total football time 94 minutes. It was well worth it.