World Cup in Paris
It started around 2 pm...
The echoes of "Allez Les Bleus" being chanted throughout the streets of Paris as Team France was getting ready to take the field in the Finals of the 2018 World Cup in just a few short hours.
As I stepped out into the streets, I was both excited and ready to go into a full sprint to go secure my seat being that literally every single café where a tv was on was already overflowing with people.
It was amazing!
Almost every single man, woman and child was wrapped in or carrying a French flag, had their faces striped with red white and blues or was sporting French pride in some way. People of all sizes, races, ages all were coming together in this moment on this day, as a unified country, to cheer their team and their country towards victory.
So after standing there in awww for a good 10 minutes thinking oh my gosh this is so exciting I want to scream, I hurried my way through the crowds to my preferred go-to sports watching café, Café Rive Droite.
Luckily we come here often enough that even with it already being standing room only, the manager was gracious enough to pull out a table and chair for me so I could have my seat- woo who! From there, it was game on! The people next to me made sure that I was sporting my French pride and striped me up on each cheek. The energy became more and more magnetic as game time approached and as the 5 o'clock buzzer for game time hit the entire cafe and the probably 300 other people standing outside watching, all sang their hearts out in unison to the French National Anthem.
It was electric in there.
From that point, every attack on goal made by the Les Bleus (France), every foul made by the Vatreni (Croatia), and my goodness, every time the French Team scored, the energetic vibration of this place and the entire city flew off the charts.
With a final score of 4 to 2 and French being declared as the winner, the entire city went wild! The streets were flooded with celebratory fireworks, people cheering, every single person smiling, dancing, waving their French flags and shining with pride, which carried on until the wee hours of the morning. On this day, every single French person was proud to be a part of their great country for their team had triumphed and earned their place as Champions Du Monde.
It was truly a once in a lifetime experience for me. A vision of unity that will never be forgotten.
Allez Les Blues, France, you did it! You are champions of the World!
