Euro 2008 : happily ever after.

A last one for the road, Raymond.

A -male- journalist from Québec wrote Raymond Domenech had "la tête bouclée d'un poète et le regard ténébreux d'un philosophe".

When Domenech practised his poetry on football grounds, he made Matereazzi look like a choir boy.

I he is a philosopher, my name is Hegel.

For a French, living in Montreal offers substantial advantages, including a fairly recent one : you are sheltered from the increasingly public love (?) lives of Gallic celebrity couples.

Montreal was only marginally affected by the "We'll always have Disneyland Paris" Bruni/Sarkozy tsunami.

Similarly, Montrealers were spared when Raymond Domenech, still high from his team's elimination -and maybe other products-, apparently proposed to his long-time girlfriend during the post game meet with the press.

We are left to imagine the scene and the graying, vaguely haggard lover, standing -or sitting?- before the traditional wallpaper of sponsor names.

Raymond Domenech is not only a poet-philosopher, he is also a man of exquisite taste.

(PM)