74 percent chance

Regular readers may wonder where I have been. Sunday: rain. Monday: rain. Tuesday: rain. Wednesday: rain. Thursday: rain.

Today there was only a 74 percent chance of rain. In fact, it sprinkled as I walked out to the parking lot after work. But I got home and the streets were dry. It was not actually raining. I gave it a try.

The ride was punctuated not by rain but by an emphatic period at the end: dark, dark, completely dark. It was totally completely dark at 6:45. But I was in the house. It was not a long ride but it was ride.

Uh, it was too dark to get a photo.

Ms. Wireless was over on Wednesday and we watched France v. Lithuania in a Euro 2008 qualifier. With the big doings in Paris for the rugby World Cup the usual venue, Stade de France, was not available for this game so they played it in Nantes. It was a chance for me to get a look at what Ms. Wireless has called "a really nice stadium." And it looked really nice, a full oval with about half of the seats under cover. The pitch looked fantastic. It is clearly a big league stadium, obviously not appropriate for Ligue 2. France won 2-0 as Thierry Henry scored both goals to surpass current Fédération Française de Football President Michel Platini as the all time leading goal scorer for the French national team. In an interesting coincidence, and as noted on a sign waved by a fan in the crowd during the celebration, and as translated for me by my guide, M. Henry also scored his very first professional goal in Nantes.

Today FC Nantes took the same field as Ligue 2 action resumed. Nantes hosted Troyes. Troyes is interesting as it is a team which was also in Ligue 1 last season, finishing 18th to Nantes' 20th. Troyes, Sedan and Nantes were the relegated teams. Troyes was in 4th place coming into today's game, obviously needing a win to get back into the promotion zone of the general classification.

Nicolas Goussé opened the scoring for Nantes in the 21st minute. The game seemed to turn against Nantes in the 45th minute when Harlington Shereni was given a straight red card for elbowing the Troyes captain, Gael Sanz. However, the Nantes website characterized the foul as "une grossière simulation" which I think means that Nantes supporters believe that a more astute referee might have noticed that the Troyes player was acting and that no contact had occurred. Entering the second half a player short but leading 1-0, defense was obviously the priority. In the 69th minute a foul on the same Gael Sanz produced a yellow card and a free kick opportunity for Nantes just 22 meters away from goal. Troyes marked poorly and defender Jean-Jacques Pierre, forward on the free kick, notched the second goal for the Canaries. Justice was eventually served when Sanz received another yellow in the 89th minute resulting in the second expulsion of the match. The final whistle saw the teams playing 10 a side.

Nantes improves its hold on first place in the table with second place Le Havre off until Monday night.