Steve Savidan - the end of a French footballing fairy tale

It's always moving when you see a sportsman of any kind close to tears, and particularly perhaps a footballer.

Such was the case of Steve Savidan at the weekend as he announced that his playing career was at an end.

Savidan's might not be a name with which many of you are familiar, but a few months ago his story created quite a stir here in France when he made his first appearance in a jersey for the national side (you can read about it in English here).

It came during a friendly against Uruguay and was more than a dream come true for a man, most of whose career, had been spent playing in the lower ranks of French football.

His tale was the stuff of a Boy's Own annual, as against all the odds he rose from the humblest of beginnings - playing football on an amateur basis, while holding down jobs such as a dustman or barman - to become a goal-hungry attacker for a first division side and a member of the national squad.

From 1997, when he made his debut for SCO Angers, until five moves later at Angoulême CFC, nothing much seemed to be "happening" for Savidan.

But in 2004 he joined the northern French side of Valenciennes, and the fairy tale began.

During his four-year spell at the club he made 141 first team appearances and scored 61 times and in 2008 he transferred to (then) fellow first division side Caen, where he quickly continued regularly finding the back of the net.

And that's also when the national coach, Raymond Domenech, started to sit up and take notice, calling Savidan into the squad at the (for a footballer) ripe old age of 30, and bringing him off the bench and on to the pitch in a second-half substitution to earn him his first cap against Uruguay at Stade de France last November.

The game ended in a goalless draw, but that didn't detract in any way from Savidan looking deservedly pleased and proud of his achievement afterwards.

That joy of a little less than 10 months ago must seem a far cry from his feelings over this past weekend though.

Savidan had scored 16 goals for SM Caen during the 2008-2009 season, and although the club had been relegated to the second division, his career was set to continue in the top flight with a move to AS Monaco.

Except he failed a medical test with the results showing that he had a heart abnormality.

Steve Savidan announces his retirement (in French)

"There are stages in life that you have to know how to get past," he said, fighting back the tears.

"I thank my wife and my friends for everything. It's a page that's turning. I'm sorry."

The sadness was there for everyone to see as he made his announcement.

While his footballing days are now over, at least the medical abnormality was picked up ahead of time. That would probably not have been the case had he stayed put.

Moving clubs automatically means a player has to undergo a series of health tests. So while there's sadness in the tale, there's also a brighter side.

One thing is for certain though. Nobody can ever take away from Savidan that international cap he won last year.

And as for that remarkable playing career which is far from being textbook material? Well it'll surely remain an inspiration to many and stand as proof that sometimes the "beautiful game" really can make dreams come true.

Paris bans 79-year-old from tending abandoned graves

It's perhaps just one of those everyday stories that illustrates how rigid bureaucracy can sometimes be, and also how rules are applied that seem to fly in the face of common sense.

A 79-year-old woman has been served with an injunction by Parisian authorities to stop her from taking care of unattended graves at one of the capital's most famous cemeteries, Montmartre in the 18th arrondissement.

The reason? They're private property and therefore unless they belong to you or your family, or you have permission, you're not allowed to look after them.

The Montmartre cemetery is the final resting place of many a famous person, including among others, the Egyptian-born singer and actress Dalida, the French singer-song writer, Michel Berger, composer Hector Berlioz and ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky to name but a very few.

Tomb of Dalida (from Wikipedia)

But alongside the tombs of past greats there are also a fair number of unattended graves, and it's those that Marie has been looking after for the past 28 years.

Day in, day out she has turned up at the cemetery, secateurs, watering can and, most importantly, plants at hand to follow her passion and provide a little more colour to the graves of those who would seem to have been forgotten.

"I put the plants on the abandoned tombs, and maybe those who have left are happy about it, and it certainly delights me to do it," she told national radio.

"I'm crazy about flowers and doesn't it look better with all the deteriorating stones covered like that?"

Except the body charged with looking after the capital's greens areas, which also includes its cemeteries, la direction des espaces verts et de l’evnvironnement (DEVE) doesn't quite see things the same way.

As far as it's concerned, not only is the 79-year-old "breaking the rules", she's also leaving her own mess behind her.

"We have photos of hundreds of broken pots left on the grounds of the cemetery," said Pascal-Hervé Daniel, the head of the department responsible for the maintenance of the capital's cemeteries.

"The woman simply leaves them there once she has finished, and we're obliged to clean up after her."

Marie maintains that in spite of the injunction which came into effect on Monday, she'll continue visiting the cemetery, "To the end of my days as flowers are my life."

One well-meaning if slightly potty woman or an overzealous administration?

Or perhaps a little bit of both.

Exam woes for French high school student

It's that time of year again; the one many of us probably remember with somewhat less fondness than other childhood events - end of school, examinations and the results.

Here in France around 331,000 students have been taking their baccalauréat, more "affectionately" and popularly known as the bac, generally viewed as the passport for entry into the country's higher education system.

Spare a thought though in particular for one 18-year-old from the southern French city of Toulouse, who has gone through an experience with which many, who have "been there, done that" can probably sympathise.

Last Monday, along with the rest of her class, she sat her English exam, and according to the regional daily newspaper, La Dépêche du Midi, was "more than satisfied with how she had done."

All fine and dandy, except the following day after sitting her Spanish exam, she was hauled in to the centre responsible for marking to be asked why she hadn't handed in her English paper.

She maintained that she had in fact given her copy to the invigilator but the problem was there was no proof that she had done so.

As La Dépêche du Midi points out, during the bac the only requirement made of students is that they sign a paper to confirm their presence. There's no system in place to verify that they have handed in a copy of their work.

Faced with something of an impasse and the threat of not passing her bac, the only option left open to her was to contact the director of the school and plead her case.

And that's exactly what she did, with her requests being heard to the extent that it was agreed that she would be allowed to retake the paper.

So it was probably with a certain resignation and understandable lack of enthusiasm that she sat alone in the classroom on Wedesday afternoon to resit the examination.

"Naturally I was upset," the 18-year-old, who has not been named, told the paper.

"I didn't have the same motivation as I had the first time and I didn't understand why I was doing it.

"They were telling me that I was being given a 'second chance', but as far as I was concerned I had already taken the paper and performed well on the Monday."

But of course the story doesn't end there, because guess what!

At the end of the same day the director of the school rang her parents to inform them that the copy of her first paper "had been found" and that would be the one that would count towards her final mark.

So "All's well that ends well" and undoubtedly there's relief all round, not just for the 18-year-old but also the examining board and the school, both of which had perhaps done her a disservice in the first place by insisting that she hadn't handed in her original paper and then generously allowing her to retake it.

Perhaps they'll take note for the future and install a (simple) system which checks that not only are candidates are present, but that they have also handed in their papers.