Serendipitous Event of the Trip (New Zealand 8, France 7)

So I've been planning to have a serendipitous event this trip and I finally got to cross it off our list.  We were leaving the Louvre and debating which way to head.  Fran wanted to go to the Latin Quarter to buy a scarf (she bought one there a few years ago).  I hate the Latin Quarter because it's soooooo touristy.   I hate walking through it.  My first visit, and the realization it's a tourist trap, ruined it for me.  I used to imagine smoky jazz clubs filled with the next Ernest Hemmingways brooding over their wine.  Then I went there and all my fantasy's were crushed.  Bad food and lots of souvenir shops.

Any way I talked Fran into heading back to the rue Cler.  As we're heading out of theLouvre grounds (by that big egyptian obelisk whose name I can never remember) we saw a ton of people walking around with French flags.  There was pop music blaring.  We got to the square and it was jammed with people.  A stage had been set up - we thought oh boy a free concert!

Then we started looking around and realized it was the home coming celebration for the French Rugby team from the Rugby World Cup!

That's the stage by my head.

A giant jumbotron was showing highlights of the season.  Now a year and a half ago I wouldn't have cared.  But as some of you know Kelsey (my daughter) started playing Rugby for Central.  I've learned a lot about the game (so I can watch).  Recall when we stayed in Sarlat we met a couple from New Zealand that helped us out around the town.  What I didn't mention was he is a huge All Black (the NZ Rugby team) fan.  We chatted a bit about Rugby and how we both agreed that NZ and France were the ones that would make it into the world cup.  New Zealand has just dominated this season.  Long story short NZ was pegged to crush France (they'd met during the regular season and beat them like 56 to 20).  NZ did win the world cup but only by 1 point.  It was a great match (we actually watch part of it when we were in Spain).

Anyway we got to wave French flags and join the celebration for the French team along with ten thousand of our French friends.  Again I've said it before but it's these kinds of things that make travel really fun.