Wanting to fit in one more trip before the visitor parade, we went to visit Sara and husband in a French suburb of Geneva this weekend. This gave us a chance to see first-hand some of the celebrations after France’s unexpected victory over Brazil in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
The cheering and honking started immediately after the final whistle, and didn’t stop until sometime after we had gone to bed. There was a man dressed up like a giant soccer ball celebrating on a neighboring balcony (alas, it was too dark for the pictures to come out). If people were getting this crazy within the privacy of their own apartments, I reasoned, what wild, wacky stuff must be going on out on the street! We quickly donned our shoes and headed out to enjoy that rare beast, the French Victory.
We followed the noise to what seemed to be the main intersection of the little town, to find a crowd of all ages, races, and genders (yes, all 2 of them). Cars continuously drove through honking, with various passengers hanging various body parts out the windows and screaming.
Highlights of the festivities included a group of colorfully-dressed African woman dancing in the street, soccer moms trying to keep track of their young kids, guys running around holding lit fireworks, and a beer-bellied man on his balcony watching over it all in nothing but his bikini underwear. Don’t worry, we got his picture.
Great picture of the guy in underwear; did he really think he wasn’t visible? Or- scarier- did he realize he was? The glasses store underneath is a great touch- catering to the far-sighted who couldn’t make out his crazy small underwear?