It was a typical response from the French authorities. They were dithering about "if we abandon they will call us unprepared" to"what do we do with 80,000 fans in the stade de France" to "what do we tell the broadcasters" I spent some time in 2010 working in an office close to the stade and when the rest of Paris is still warm the wind around St Denis makes ice and and the pavements impossible. It is a landmark since it is slightly higher than the surronding area so is the but of winds that channel into the area. Because the ground underneath is polluted with god knows what (It is built on the site of the old Paris gasworks) they probably haven't invested in any undersoil heating. The good news is that the bar restaurants in the Rue Jules Rimet (partiuclarly the Trois Mi Temps) will have done a roaring trade. The clip of Serge Betson jumping up and down indicated he knew where he was heading.
It's some comfort to me, that having put up with 20 years or so of slapdash, disinterested French workmen who always seem to leave my house in a slightly (or sometimes considerably) worse condition than they found it, turn up when they like and pass off any complaints with the familiar Gallic shrug, that this attitude carries through right to the top...
Tewks the best French workmen are always the immigrants from Morroco, Algeria and Tunisia. The unspoken R word over there means that they are often at the bottom of the pile, not welcomed by the Chambre de Metiers. They will go the extra mile and aim to do a good job and if you pay the same rates as you do for a Gallic workmen they will come out when the pipes burst etc. At the top of French industry are the boys from the Ecole Polytechnique who only do business with the guys in their year group at college, everyone else is an enemy or more likely beneath contempt. They are very bright but as one Frenchman explained to me "they have difficulty tying their shoelaces". My guess is that at the Stade de France last night very many shoelaces were untied and they all fell flat on their faces.
Ah, right. That could be why my roof's still going strong after 15 years, but I can't get anyone to service my boiler...
BTW, ten degrees (that's plus) and counting in Tewkes today - just done 10k on my bike and it's lovely, with the ground softening up nicely. Really don't need another game postponed.
We've always got time for friendly visitors to our board, Rocky. Sounds like your man Bull had a hell of a game yesterday - from the stats, he must have felt like he was in a shooting gallery. It seems like you've got all the elements there, if you could just put a half-decent run of results together.
