PPC 2 Paris: Days 4-5

Warmest Welcomes My Auspicious Audience,

The prevalence of thought over action can be the escarpment towards the heights of being or the barrier displacing one from their goals.

Accompany me on my recounts through the mounts and marks of Marseilles, the winding steps of Avignon and down the roads into the lavish city of Lyon. Let us examine what lies beyond the drawbridge of limitations.

Poem Explanation:

There was a castle upon a hill. Its appearance allured our group from the first moment we set eyes upon it. The talks of the opportunity to visit were consistent and numerous.

Ella, a fellow student on the Olympics Project, suggested going up to its peak to take photos for sunrise. A small group of us one morning in Marseille traveled to reach it.

Now in actuality, the castle was a church and the hill was more of a mountain. We sat for a time and discussed the various plagues of our minds. After a long period of watching the sun rise and snapping shots, we explored the church.

By chance, a reporter was interviewing one of the nuns present at the church. As one of their shots, they lowered the drawbridge twice. Our group had missed their first attempt, but in their goal to get a good shot, I was 'found fond by fate' and able to record the drawbridge coming down.

Just beyond the drawbridge was the central chapel. In it, of course, was a large Crucifix, hence the “opportunity” beyond. This opportunity being the chance for salvation.

The Bible oft preaches that it is the lowly and meek that will inherit the keys to the kingdom. This thought raced through my mind at the realization of the allegory to the security providing us access rather than the priest. 

The second half of this poem is inspired by a conversation with Chandler, a student of the Olympics project, while we were in Avignon later in the day.

Cities in France are riddled with churches. Chandler had visited one and noted the introspective silence as being key to her experience.

She described the silence as saying so many messages to her through the thoughts that possessed her mind. These thoughts resonated deeply with her.

I utilized the metaphor of marriage in the line "Are the notes that ears dearly wed" due to the relation of Jesus and the church often associated with the idea of marriage.

The silence spoke volumes to her “as if it had voice.”

Poem Explanation:

We attended the first game of the 2024 Olympics U-23 Men’s Football featuring Team USA vs Team France. The land of the free could not manage to free a single goal against the consensus favorites as the score ended 3-0.

This wounded me greatly. The following line “That white and blue bleed” is a two layered tribute to France. 

The French flag is red, white and blue. Each color is evident in the line. The latter two were explicit in statement. The red was implicit through the use of “bleed” as blood from the heart is red. 

The second layer comes from the "Allez Les Bleus" flag set on each seat prior to the game. This was the flag of the French team which adorned a white background with blue lettering.

The succeeding four lines are a tribute to the article I wrote following the game “America Needs an Egoist.” 

This article was a play off the soccer anime, Blue Lock, which featured the perfect “egoist striker.” This is the derivation for the lines "Fans full of ego//But a team sans egoists." The fans of the USA were notorious for talking trash, yet our team had yet to truly establish our star player and identity.

"The crowd in waves" comes from my description of France’s playstyle being similar to that of waves of the sea. The crowd also particular enjoyed to participate in "the wave" celebration.

Furthermore, “Our hopes in mist” refers to the hazy and sparse, but existent nonetheless, chances for victory. They were born from stunting the waves of France’s offense with our stellar defense that held the game scoreless until the 61st minute.

“Daring drives//Yet Absent dare of eyes” is a testament to the passivity on the front of attempting shots despite USA’s aggressive strategy and passes inward towards the goal.

The lines continue to describe the stifling defense played. The definition of rifling made it a perfect fit as it can be described as to “hit, throw, or kick (a ball or puck) hard and straight” or as the preparation in creating a gun barrel that allows for taking a clean shot.

There was much preparation, yet for a time there was little actual shots attempted.

Passivity seemed to overwhelm the field following the many passes. 

The final lines describe the snatched relief when USA had scored a goal, the "Phantom Hope," in the final minutes. The goal was recalled due to an offsides prior to the shot.

Poem Explanation:

In Lyon we continued our “Tour de Pizza” in France. Notably, I had went with Professor Sabadie, one of the supervisors for the trip, and Teyona, a graduate student of the Olympics project, to pick up many full pizzas for the group to eat.

The second line refers to the Olympics podcast episode between Cade and Collin, both students of the Olympics project. 

They joked of a potential treaty spurred by the two of them. Collin insisted that they should do so at Versailles and the two agreed it might possibly be ‘the most important treaty ever signed there.’

"A mansion made model" refers to the transformation of Fourvière, said by name later on, from a castle to a model hotel. Despite this change, “the halls reign regal” as the aesthetics of the architecture were well preserved.

This architecture included various saints and "Holy faces" along walls with a tabernacle-like structure in the lobby. A necessary tribute to France’s religious ties.

The castle featured various statues of lions dispersed throughout the surrounding areas. Some of which’s “reared roars” were clearly visible from my room window.

“Castle kings” is both a reference to chess and to the atmospheric effect of staying in the hotel. I chose this depiction as the maids worked with the same high precision of chess moves to keep the rooms clean.

Furthermore, their insistence and frequency to do so at times caused many of us to “castle” ourselves in a sense like the king piece on the chess board to a different location of the castle.

“Maids rush to clean the cleansed room” is a reference to a common assertion that the maids would trip over themselves to clean an already cleaned room. A testament to the high standard of upkeep in the hotel.

“Hôtel Fourvière est joli” is French translates to “Hotel Fourvière sits pretty.”

The following line, “New faces, old city,” is a reflection of how we were visitors residing in the old city portion of Lyon. This location is important as the new city required a somewhat lengthy metro ride to reach. 

This caused us to typically remain near the hotel. Hence, “so much unseen” before we would leave to our next destination, Torcy.