When I'm in the U.S. I am not usually a fan of watching soccer on TV, but it's completely different in Europe and it's always really fun to watch it in a bar in the country that's playing and cheer with the crowd. France is no different, and I've now watched two football games at a bar here although it's mostly a guys' sport and I was one of only two girls in the whole bar. They clear out all the stools and force it to be standing room only, but people pack the bar for the solid 90 minutes, standing, barely moving, eyes riveted to the screen. It's a very serious sport, and big games are treated with great respect (they're playing for the World Cup right now), but it's France, and as soon as I heard the first "Oh la la" I just about lost it into giggles.
The French say "Oh, la la!" when something critical is about to happen, or when a play fails, or when somebody makes a mistake. There are different intonations to describe what happened, and you can just about follow a game without watching, simply by listening to the sounds the French make. The intonation for something critical about to happen is high-pitched and spoken quickly, with excitement - "OH LA LA!!" The intonation for a botched play is a low-pitched murmur full of disdain - "oh, la la" and the intonation for a player who made a mistake is scornful and full of disbelief "OH! la la" with a bit of a tsk-tsk at the end.
I was recently asked why American football players wear helmets and so much padding. So they don't get injured, I responded. My friends told me, but rugby players don't wear padding and it's much more intense than your football. I said no it wasn't because in rugby the play is much more fluid and both teams are moving generally in the same direction so the hits aren't as hard as in American football where the two teams run at each other from opposite directions. We proceeded to get in an argument about whether rugby or American football has harder hits. To be fair to both sides, I haven't watched enough rugby to evaluate conclusively, but my friends haven't watched enough American football to know, so we were left with a stalemate. I was the only one who thought the hits were harder in football. I'm open to input, let me know what you think . . .
In basketball, the great sports moment on local television for me is hearing Tony Parker speak to reporters in French.
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