Today was election day in France. I woke up this morning at Becky's apartment in Poitiers and on our way down the stairs her 8-year-old host brother said, "Aujourd'hui, c'est le jour de vote!" (Today is voting day!). It was adorable and quite telling about French political engagement. Today was basically a national holiday. When I walked home from the gym around 6:45, an hour before the results, there was practically no one on the streets, which is very bizarre for a Sunday evening.
I figured I would watch the results with my host family, and around 7:45 I went into the living room. To my surprise, there were no host parents, but my host brother Jean and six of his friends. I was super intimidated, as I barely know Jean, but I really wanted to watch the results so I asked if I could sit down. The response was a chorus of yeses, and Jean had gotten me a glass of wine before I had found I chair. I quickly discovered I was in a room full of young conservatives (to be expected, since I knew the political leanings of the Beguins). Naturally Jean asked me who I supported, and I timidly said I was hoping for Royal to win. Luckily the girl next to me was the single Royaliste in the room. I found out later, as the mayor of Paris was speaking on TV, that this girl was the mayor's god-daughter. She was quite disappointed with the results.
Waiting for the results was like waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square on New Year's. There was a countdown along the bottom of the screen. As we got down to the 10 second mark, tiny images kept flying into the screen and as the timer went from 01 to 00 the images came together to form Sarkozy's face with a big 53% underneath. Quite the dramatic way to announce. And the room exploded. Everyone hugged and kissed and shouted and Jean busted out the champagne. He must have anticipated victory, as he had three bottles chilling in the fridge. Apparently two of the boys come from the town where Sarko started his political career as mayor, so they were ecstatic.
After the announcement we watched Sego and Sarko's speeches, typical rhetorical promise-filled discourses that both ended with "Vive la Republique, Vive la France" Alors. The cameras also showed the places around the country where the supporters were gathered, particularly Place de la Concorde, which resembled Times Square packed with people. After her speech, Royal went there to speak again. Sarko gave his speech from the presidential palace, then headed out to another Parisian square near his headquarters. At this point Jean and his friends decided to join the festivities. They invited me to come along, and I agreed, but unfortunately while I was in my room getting my coat and things, they left without me. Oops. Alors, still a fun night. Besides the result. 
On a final note, here's a spoof of Sarkozy's campaign poster that I adore. His slogan is "Ensemble tout devient possible" Together everything is possible. This one reads "Together...without the poor, the foreigners, welfare recipients, extreme left, communists, homosexuals, HIV positives, blacks, arabs (and so it continues with lots of culturally specific references) and ends with "the guy who swiped my wife" hahaha (Sarko's wife cheated on him about 3 years back...they are still married but she said she doesn't want to live in the palace, didn't vote with him, and didn't ride in the car with him...actually wasn't around him at all tonight) America's press would have an absolute field day with these candidates (Sego has a civil union and four kids with the head of her party and her political rival, who also said he wouldn't live in the palace). The French are super good about keeping private lives private though (I read most of this in the NY Times). Alors, we've still got legislative elections in a month to see how well Sarko's grand plans will be put into action. 'til then, vive la republique, vive la france!
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