My bad French isn't nearly as funny to me as grrrlylibrarian's bad French. GL majored in French Lit (at Berkeley) and can do a French accent and throw French words around in a way I find beyond hilarious. It's bad to think bad French is funny. I have enormous respect for the French in culture, bicycling, opposition to stupid-ass American Presidents, etc. There are a few things French I don't find as appealing. No need to list them, but they're probably on your list of French negatives, too.
I was going write this blog entry tomorrow on Bastille Day proper. But, it's already tomorrow in France, so happy BD, France. "La da da da da da da da da la da da da da ta da." (That was my blog rendition of La Marseillaise).
Sometimes my Word program at work switches (for no reason that I can determine) into spell-check in French. I like to think it knows how funny I think that is.
Anyway...(blogging at night after taking Tylenol PM isn't very coherent, is it?)...It's really important to the French that the July 14th stage of the Tour de France be won by a Frenchman. And it's preferable that the winning rider be on a French team. For those of you not following the race closely (ahem), here are the French teams:
Credit Agricole
Ag2R Provence
Cofidis
Francaise Des Jeux
Bougyes Telecom
Agritubel
The sponsors of the above represent: a bank, an insurance company, a credit company, the French National lottery, a telecommunications company, and fuck if I know. (Agritubel is a wildcard team with ugly kits and I'm not looking them up. Look them up if you want.)
David Moncoutie of Cofidis won the stage on 7/14/05. Richard Virenque (French!) won on 7/14/04 riding for the Belgian Quickstep (flooring) team. The French love Virenque, even though he's an admitted doper. 7/14/03 didn't see a Frenchman win. It was the rather famous (no snickering by sheds or others) day Lance Armstrong rode across the grass to avoid a crash and went on to cement his 5th overall win. Ok, enough tour history.
The French are probably unhappy today that Floyd Landis of Phonak, an American, is wearing the maillot jaune indicating he's the overall leader. I can't say I'm thrilled either. See my earlier post about Floyd's homophobic stupidity. I'm now hoping for a Levi Leipheimer comeback, but would be happy with any of the big riders who are close to win, except Floyd. Cadel Evans, Denis Menchov, and Andreas Kloden seem the mostly likely guys at this point. Menchov won the Vuelta a Espana last year by default because Roberto Heras lost his win because of doping. Drugs are great for what drugs are supposed to do. Just leave them out of sports, ok? Ok.
Here's Menchov celebrating his stage win today:
You'd be that pumped too if you had just won after climbing five mountains in 6 hours and 6 minutes on a bicycle.
Back to French--one of the ironies of my finding bad French so funny is that it would have horrified my grandmother. She was a French teacher and loved ALL things French. She even let her love for French seep over into a dislike and distrust of things Spanish. French wasn't funny to her. It was serious business.
So, happy Bastille Day, Gran. I hope that a Frenchman wins the Tour stage today. And I hope that there's a really nice version of Paris in heaven.
Vive la France. Oui. Alpe D'Huez.
5 comments:
Wha? When did this entry happen? I'm quite sure we went to bed together at 10:30. Have you been sneaking out on me again, with the Internet, no less?
I, for the record, would look that fierce even if I had just taken six days to climb five mountains.
Let's see, we did go to bed at 10:30. I was bouncing around because I was hot and restless. You may not have noticed, what with the select comfortness of our bed and all. I went up to the front room to sleep. On the way, I blogged.
Since it would take me six months to get up those mountains on a bicycle, I can't disagree.
Hope ya'll had a happy Bastille Day. I'm not so keen on France, but whatever (on fire) works for you. ;p
It's not like we celebrated Bastille Day. We'll watch the TdF tonight. Based on the bit of it I wtached this morning, I'm guessing a Frenchman didn't win.
Can you sing La Marseillise in tune?
Contrary to what TBO thinks, I do not hold any contempt or dislike for the French, their language, or their fashion. I find, however, that taunting Brits by telling them that most of them are really French, though, is pretty funny.
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