We found it difficult attempting to write an entertaining blog at the end of such a generally devastating week. Our ‘On the Podium’ feature tends to look for things in the news and the world of marketing that have amused, entertained and impressed us.

This week, it’s hard not to think about the hundreds of Parisians, and visitors to Paris, who this time last week were looking forward to spending a Friday night doing things to entertain and amuse themselves.

Over 130 of those people never came home, and hundreds more are scarred forever by what they saw and experienced. Yet more people have lost friends and loved ones.

However, as has been pointed out, Paris is a fun loving city: this widely-shared cartoon (below), drawn by an illustrator at the Charlie Hebdo magazine, neatly sums up the average Parisian’s attitude to life in general. We feel this is a perfect response to the global outpouring of support and sympathy that followed the terrorist attacks.

 

If only the French had a phrase for ‘joie de vivre’: I’m sure it’d be appropriate here.

Anyway, in that spirit, we shall continue with a slightly-more-sombre-than-usual Sur le Podium feature.

Third place: football

Football’s image has taken a battering recently. There are ongoing and widespread allegations of corruption at its very highest level, and investigations into those continue. Meanwhile, organisers of the Qatar World Cup in 2022 appear to be overseeing stadium-building projects with appalling human rights issues and terrible accident and fatality records.

However, football has its positive moments, too, and sometimes proves that it can still be a force for good. After last Friday’s atrocities, the England vs France game took place in incredibly testing conditions at Wembley on Tuesday evening. It was initially due to be cancelled, but the authorities on both sides of the channel were keen for it to go ahead as a sign of defiance.

The game itself, just a friendly match, mattered little: all eyes were the emotionally-charged pre-match build-up in which both sets of fans sang the French anthem, and then stood for an impeccably-observed minute’s silence. Wembley was lit with French colours and its motto, Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité and, from start to finish, it was handled magnificently: a perfectly-judged display of togetherness of which both countries should be proud.

As an aside, from an English perspective, it was also a chance for us to show that we are still a strong, tolerant, welcoming and sympathetic nation, which can sometimes be difficult to remember when less tolerant elements of our society manage to voice themselves so strongly.

Second place: Jonah Lomu

It feels odd to mark specifically the death of one man, against the backdrop of the events of last Friday.

However, since Jonah Lomu left such an indelible mark on the world of sport, and left us this week at such a young age (40), we can’t pass over it.

Rewinding 20 years to 1995, when I was 16 and playing rugby for my school, I can still remember the growing legend of this giant All Black.

In the days before accessible internet, before social media, before instant video clips, the way his reputation preceded him was, I imagine, how Goliath’s did. New Zealand had a guy that was going to decimate all before him and, for once, the hype was real.

David would have had no chance against Lomu.

He was 6’5″ and 19 stone – basically unheard-of proportions for a winger, yet he also boasted incredible speed. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to get hit by that guy in full flow. Tackling was never my strongest point – I’d probably have politely got out of his way.

He arrived at that year’s Rugby World Cup as a relative novice, and in the semi final found himself up against an England side that had, that year, won the Five Nations grand slam.

He scored four tries against England that day, destroying Mike Catt’s reputation in the process. Those present claim the stadium trembled whenever he got the ball. No England player involved will ever forget that day.

Jonah Lomu left the world cup as a global superstar: he changed the way the game was played, and ushered in a  new breed of super athletes, boasting a blend of never-seen-before speed and power.

That he managed this with a failing liver just underlines what an incredible man he was.

Here he is destroying the home nations and Ireland in 1995:

First place: Paris and France generally

It’s safe to say our relationship with France has, at times, been slightly fraught – various historical wars still resonate, as wars tend to do, and recent relations have been punctuated by lorry drivers’ strikes and the BSE crisis.

We have, however, fought side-by-side enough times in the past 100 years to know we’ve got each other’s backs when it really counts.

In truth, the angst probably comes from our sheer proximity and our similarity in terms of values and outlook on life. Oh, and the fact that their accent is so much sexier than ours.

It would be easy to turn this into a list of things we love about Paris, but suffice to say that it’s simply a brilliant city that must be seen by everyone at least once in their lifetimes.

Paris: nous t’aimons beaucoup.

 

Have a safe weekend, everyone.

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