Frogs v. Roast Beef

France was defeated by England in the Rugby World Cup on Saturday night, meaning they’re out of the running for the gold—and to make matters worse, they lost on their home turf, in front of their countrymen, to the English. Everyone was sure France would win. All week long, all of Paris was in a great mood and still buzzing over France’s win against the All Blacks the weekend before. And even though the city was overrun with English people, wherever you went, all day long, people were wearing the French flag around their shoulders or painted on their face or shouting the national anthem. An hour before game time, the bars were bursting and everyone was slightly drunk but in high spirits. France was up until about 30 mins till the end and the boys were in good form… but England slowly began to advance with a couple of penalties (I guess that’s what it was), and at the final whistle, it was 14-9 England. I desperately wanted to get shots of the dejection of the crowd standing outside of the bar afterwards, but I was afraid I would get beat up. But trust me, there was a marked difference between the singing and cheering and flag waving before the game and the palpable sadness afterwards. Walking home after the game there were no car’s honking their horns, no singing in the streets, no drunken cheers, nothing—Paris was silent and mourning on Saturday night.