Paris 2012

Living in France these days also means constantly being hammered
by the effort to get the 2012 Olympic games to Paris. Apart from
inherent annoyance, the anti sporting nature of Parisians is made
most clear by the choice of St. Quentin en Yvelines for the
velodrome. Choosing this sterile suburb (I had the misfortune of
staying
near there for a month) which is 25km away from Paris simply states:
"Keep cycling out of our city!" In the meantime, there was a perfect
site available in Vincennes, namely La Cipale, a practically unused
velodrome in the Bois de Vincennes, which could have been rebuilt so
that the velodrome would have been at the gates of Paris.

-ilan

St.Quentin en Yvelines is the start/finish of Paris-Brest-Paris every
four years.

wrote:
Living in France these days also means constantly being hammered
by the effort to get the 2012 Olympic games to Paris. Apart from
inherent annoyance, the anti sporting nature of Parisians is made
most clear by the choice of St. Quentin en Yvelines for the
velodrome. Choosing this sterile suburb (I had the misfortune of
staying
near there for a month) which is 25km away from Paris simply states:
"Keep cycling out of our city!" In the meantime, there was a perfect
site available in Vincennes, namely La Cipale, a practically unused
velodrome in the Bois de Vincennes, which could have been rebuilt so
that the velodrome would have been at the gates of Paris.

-ilan

wrote in message
oups.com...
Living in France these days also means constantly being hammered
by the effort to get the 2012 Olympic games to Paris. Apart from
inherent annoyance, the anti sporting nature of Parisians is made
most clear by the choice of St. Quentin en Yvelines for the
velodrome. Choosing this sterile suburb (I had the misfortune of
staying
near there for a month) which is 25km away from Paris simply states:
"Keep cycling out of our city!" In the meantime, there was a perfect
site available in Vincennes, namely La Cipale, a practically unused
velodrome in the Bois de Vincennes, which could have been rebuilt so
that the velodrome would have been at the gates of Paris.

-ilan

I would be very surprised if Paris got the Olympics after Chirac's resent
comments

On 5 Jul 2005 11:25:29 -0700, wrote:
Living in France these days also means constantly being hammered
by the effort to get the 2012 Olympic games to Paris. Apart from
inherent annoyance, the anti sporting nature of Parisians is made
most clear by the choice of St. Quentin en Yvelines for the
velodrome. Choosing this sterile suburb (I had the misfortune of
staying
near there for a month) which is 25km away from Paris simply states:
"Keep cycling out of our city!"

Well, that probably did it then. London got the games.

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Ewoud Dronkert a =E9crit :

Well, that probably did it then. London got the games.


I attribute it to the following comment of Paris mayor Bertrand
Delanoe, when asked what he thought of the London bid: "My
grandmother was English and she taught me a very important
English word -- fair play."

-ilan

wrote:
Delanoe, when asked what he thought of the London bid: "My
grandmother was English and she taught me a very important
English word -- fair play."

They threw the bid out because he couldn't count?

Anyway, so far, Delanoe is the only French person I've heard
interviewed
who actually wasn't bitter with insinuations about London's win.

-ilan

Stewart Fleming a =E9crit :
wrote:
Delanoe, when asked what he thought of the London bid: "My
grandmother was English and she taught me a very important
English word -- fair play."
=20
They threw the bid out because he couldn't count?

wrote:
Anyway, so far, Delanoe is the only French person I've heard
interviewed
who actually wasn't bitter with insinuations about London's win.

-ilan

Stewart Fleming a =E9crit :
wrote:
Delanoe, when asked what he thought of the London bid: "My
grandmother was English and she taught me a very important
English word -- fair play."

They threw the bid out because he couldn't count?
Has anyone seen where Finland voted on the final selection? With the
vote going 54-52 Chirac's arrogance this week could've very easily have
cost Paris the games. Going to be interesting to see how this plays
out, but I really don't think it matters because Chirac, Schroeder, and
Bush are all done, while Blair may hang on and Putin will do whatever
it takes.
Bill C
Bill C

Bill C wrote:
wrote:
Anyway, so far, Delanoe is the only French person I've heard
interviewed
who actually wasn't bitter with insinuations about London's win.

-ilan

Stewart Fleming a =E9crit :
wrote:
Delanoe, when asked what he thought of the London bid: "My
grandmother was English and she taught me a very important
English word -- fair play."

They threw the bid out because he couldn't count?
Has anyone seen where Finland voted on the final selection? With the
vote going 54-52 Chirac's arrogance this week could've very easily have
cost Paris the games. Going to be interesting to see how this plays
out, but I really don't think it matters because Chirac, Schroeder, and
Bush are all done, while Blair may hang on and Putin will do whatever
it takes.
Bill C
Bill C
DUH!, Make that 54-50. Sorry
Bill C

Bill C a =E9crit :

vote going 54-52 Chirac's arrogance this week could've very easily have
cost Paris the games.

I don't know what you're talking about. Chirac seemed just fine to
me. On the other hand, the reaction that I saw on
the post TDF show is that no one mentioned the possibility
that London had a good bid as well, which is arrogant.

In my opinion, the horrible Luc Besson promo movie didn't help.
Amazingly, it starts out with the music from Ride of the Valkyries
on an approach shot to Paris, which seemed to me more of a reference
to 1870 and 1940 than anything else, and those are not exactly
high points in French history.

-ilan