The Colonel's Forum

While doing time here in France, I have picked up on some (they are limitless) of the nuances of being a young Frenchman. If you're 16-22: It's OK to wear capri pants It's OK to drive a scooter around town Any 80s hairstyle is acceptable. You get bonus points if it involves gel, mousse and hairspray, and also for combining styles, like the mohawk-mullett. In terms of fashion, sports apparel is the order of the day. All-white is perfectly acceptable. The shoes must be Puma - ideally the motorsports "slipper" type Bling is essential - gold is preferred to silver, of course

It was an exciting Sunday here in Clermont Ferrand. Normally that would be an oxymoron, but this was not a normal Sunday. Jean-Marc and his wife Beatrice picked me up this morning and drove me out to Mauzun - a very small village about 20 miles from Clermont Ferrand. We went to see the castle there, and also because the were having a medieval festival today. The drive itself was really neat because it finally gave me a chance to see some of the Auvergne region. The terrain here is generally rolling hills that are broken up by river valleys. The exception to this is the chain of "puys" (pronounced pwees) that are inactive volcanos. The primary crops you see being grown are corn and sunflowers. We saw acre upon acre of enormous sunflowers, which is really something. The castle Mauzun is one of the finest examples of medieval defensive castles I have ever seen. Three perimiter walls of increasing diameter. The middle wall had 16 towers on it - one for each village in the

There is a lot going on in France these next few days. Here are some highlights: 1) Tomorrow is the world cup final between France and Italy. I cannot describe how big an event this is for the French. Of course you know that soccer is a lot bigger over here, but to have a world cup final between two teams that are such big rivals, and to have Brazil and Germany NOT make the finals - this is big time stuff. Even this relatively small town of Clermont Ferrand is throwing one enormous party at the town square for the big game. They have erected a 40 foot big-screen at "Place de Jaude" where they will broadcast the game. Festivities begin tomorrow at 12pm, game is at 8pm France time. I've been warned that I might not get much sleep tomorrow night because sometimes people will party in the streets all night. 2) Next week is July 14th. In America we call it Bastille day, but here it is simply referred to as July 14th. It's the French independence day, but with a

I'm back in France, and it's everything I remember. The Charles DeGaulle airport is absolutely the worst airport on the planet. When we landed and parked at our gate, we had to wait about 20 minutes before getting off the plane. They had to call the bus you see, so that when we walked down the stairs off our 767, we had a bus to board. One of the ironies here is that of my past 8 Delta flights, the previous 7 were late (for reasons OTHER than weather). The arrival at CDG was on-time, so you'd think the bus would've been waiting for us... not so. Even better, we had a new bus driver, who made 2 u-turns en route to the terminal building. The plane was parked at CDG's newest terminal, actually. The thing is, it was built by the French, so it partially collapsed in May 2004 and cannot be used at all. It is currently full of scaffoldings that are preventing the enormous structure from collapsing entirely. Being the busiest airport in France, you'd think tha