The heat is on. The sweat is pearling down faces. Thousands of contestants lining up into what seemed to be endless flow of human beings. And then finally 2h30 later the finish line, accompanied with the relief and joy of having achieved quite something unusual...
2h30' could have been quite a decent time if I were referring to a Marathon performance. But while some of the world most daring athletes were beating the tarmac, thousands of French voters were making their way to the voting box.
French Diaspora
If you live in London, and have ever walked through the South Kensington or Chelsea boroughs you are probably very aware of the great density of French citizens on the British soil. In fact, estimations evoke something along the lines of 300,000 Frenchies in the UK, of which 60% concentrate in Greater London. This means that UK capital is one of the ten first French cities in the world!!!
So imagine the entire population of a city the size of Derby converging in a few hours to a single point just to drop their ballot. You simply end up with a tremendous queue of cheese-lovers sharing their doubts about the political future of their country. Queuing is indeed a sort of national sport (well, in fact queue-jumping is).
So comparing voting with a marathon is anything but awkward, especially when both events are simultaneously happening in London. The major difference? Well, we are to go through the same efforts a second time in two weeks! Now, this is sport, isn't it?
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