[wagglebee]

The French tend to exagerate a bit. Plus everyone in France has to carry a white flag at all times.

[Kirkwood]

Based on their website statistics, they get about 17,000 visitors a day, so it does seem a little inflated, but they may have counted all the people that potentially would have passed though during the time it was closed.

[weegee]

The French tend to exagerate a bit.

Oui oui!

MICHAEL MOORE BRINGS DOWN HOUSE: LONGEST STANDING OVATION...

Ovation for Moore's 'Fahrenheit' lasts longer than Bush dawdled - Roger Ebert

Moore's anti-Bush documentary was received rapturously at its black-tie screening here Monday, and a friend told me the ovation lasted 25 minutes. In my report I suggested that Cannes ovations, like the estimates of parade crowds in Chicago, have a tendency to be exaggerated. Since I attended an 8 a.m. press screening, I was not inside the Palais des Festivals to clock it myself.

Now I have another source. The ovation lasted 20 minutes, according to Variety, which may be correct, because its reporters all carry stopwatches to check the running times of movies.

In any event it was "the longest ovation in the history of the festival," according to Thierry Fremaux, the festival's director. At a party Monday evening, I asked Moore. "It depends on when you start counting," he said. "Do you start with the beginning of the closing credits or when the lights go up? When they just wouldn't stop clapping, I walked out and they kept applauding in the lobby."

Don't know "how" long it was but they know it was "long". This record will stand too unless someone applauds for say 2 hours after some film.

[pfflier]

French authorities rushed thousands of tourists out of the Eiffel Tower after receiving a warning that a plane was about to crash into the famous Paris landmark, police and the tower's management said.

The new French flag has peel-off red and blue stripes.

I'm sure that the French thoughtfully left white hankies on the tower as they left.