Jeanne d’Arc: The Tunnel and other battles

Steve and I have been watching The Tunnel on TV for a few weeks. We finished season one last week and have started on season two. Although the first episode looked very similar to the start of The Bridge, that we watched a few years ago, where a body was placed exactly across the border point on the bridge between Sweden and Denmark, in The Tunnel you have the same start only this time it is the channel tunnel between England and France. Beyond the initial body discovery the stories go on in quite separate ways. 

Both plots though, involve the police of both countries having to work together with a tiny splash of co-operation and they did not start well when the UK investigating officer refers to his female French officer counterpart as ‘Joan’! That reminded us of some years ago, when we arrived at a hotel in Reims that we used regularly on work trips but on this occasion when there had been an important football match between England and France which had France lost. Steve, who has no interest in the footie at all, casually commiserated on that defeat to the manager who was dealing with our check in. We both laughed our heads off when he responded with “Be careful Monsieur, we have not forgotten Jeanne d’ Arc”.

You would think over the passage of time in our history that two countries as close as England and France could somehow manage to get over it and move on but it is so often not the case.

Mind you, since St Joan famously rose to battle through and recover France from the English I have had a couple of battles with the French myself. During my years in Triathlon Steve and I have driven to France loads of times for races and had a lot of fun doing that. One of the 220 magazine series races was in Ardres, just a day trip hop on the ferry and back afterwards and a great time had by all.

Then we have raced in Nice in the beautiful South of France several times, even better over a longer distance. On one occasion when it was World Championships it was a most interesting race from my point of view. Racing in my age group were twin sisters who did the entire race from the beginning to the finish line working together, one waited for the other to finish her transition before they left on their bikes. When I was placed third, and I was a long way behind them, my team manager came with me to object but they just shrugged as the French do so charmingly and said simply as if it explained why they had so openly broken the rules, “But they are famous in France”. End of that story.

Then at another French based World Championships this time in Lorient, at the awards, even though I was the only woman in my age group, my name was not called to take a place on the podium. My team manager went to tell them of their mistake and they said that a Danish woman had been placed first. They would not have it that there was no such woman in the race. That did get my goat and afterwards looking at the race photos I searched for that woman’s number and in all the photo’s the person wearing that number in the race was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties.

I pointed that out to the race directors and they still would not have it that they had re-used that number. Next I rang the Danish Federation and the man I spoke to said that the woman in question although qualified had not gone. He said he would check to make sure. He rang back quite quickly and confirmed that the woman had not even gone to that event. 

Letters flowed and in the end the French Federation said that they had the medal in the office and that I could come and get it during office hours if I wanted it. The offices at that time were in St. Ouen in the north of Paris. They refused to post it. However, we do go to St. Ouen in the course of our work now and then when clients buy in the Marche au Puce nearby. That was when we went to collect it. They were not pleased. They had the last word though or at least withheld the last word because my name still does not appear in the results of either of these events, or at least did not when I last checked. The medals however are hanging on our wall.

Steve and I still love to explore France and have many hero’s among the French sporting world. Umpteen star figure skaters and since we love that we have been a number of times to watch ice competitions. Then of course there is the remarkable Martin Fourcade who is winning so many biathlons this season. I could not begin to count how many times we have visited France for work holidays, racing or outings some things will never be forgotten.

Jeanne d’ Arc or Saint Joan to us, the Maid of Orleans was burned at the stake in 1431 At the age of 19.