Le printemps semble arriver. It was a very pleasant cycle down to Gerland in the afternoon sunshine today, to collect tickets for the all-French Champions league quarter-final, even if the reverse Mistral made it rather hard going on the outward trip. The only interruption to sunshine since we got back from East Lothian has been between sunset and sunrise, and temperatures have remained in the high teens, even reaching twenty today. Hope there's still some snow left for the skiing next weekend.
It's been a mixed week for French football. The success of OL and Bordeaux in the Ligue des Champions contrasted with the fortunes of the two French representatives in the Europa league, and yesterday a PSG supporter, injured in clashes a week ago between warring factions of the Paris fans, died. PSG's match against Nice - also in trouble because of the behaviour of their fans - this weekend will be behind closed doors.
On the political battleground, it was the first round of regional elections while we were in sunny Scotland. Sarko and the ruling party received a somewhat bloody nose, and with the Socialists, Greens and Communists agreeing a united left-wing front in most regions for the second round, said nose looks likely to be severely out of joint come Monday. Monsieur le Président has been accused of making political capital out of the killing of a policeman by Basque separatists earlier this week, and his Prime Minister made his own blunder in a speech yesterday by referring to the death of another policeman, who turns out to be alive, even if he was seriously injured in a different attack.
