Not only is the Deauville mayor suave, and so the girls said "sexy in a George Clooney-Gerard Depardieu kind of way", but he was also culturally cool and it showed with his reaction to the haka performed by the le hikoi touring party from Te Puna, Tauranga Moana.
The opportunity to create a twin town/sister city relationship was one of our missions when we started to plan this tour three years ago and given the reaction and the reception we have received it is safe to say in a non-how-sweet-our-own-kumara-taste kind of way - we have succeeded.
None of us knew much about mayoral receptions or how we would be received at this one on the other side of the world, but when the speeches stopped and the haka started, the look on the faces of the mayor and his delegation said it all.
Their first reaction was pure fear written across their faces and they took a backward step when their mayor did.
This is tres true and then when they realised that they were not going to be eaten or beaten they became mesmerised, and then they engaged - none more so than Monsieur Mayor.
He was totally into it as were all the French people we have performed in front of on this tour, from a school group on the promenade of Marseilles in the far south of France, to the rugby club of Herousville in Clermont in the very middle, to the Mayors of Deauville and Touque up in the Normandy north, and now today to the people of Pourrieres and Puyloubier here in Provence where we have been basking in 28C of sweet sunshine, divine wine and kai to die for. This has been a life changing tour for some and a trip of a lifetime for the rest of us and the glue that has kept us together has been the cultural connection we have with each other and the places and people we have been hosted by.
What was rewarding for someone like me, who is totally unco when it comes to doing the haka, was watching our caucasian cousins in the group giving it their all and normalising our national dance that surely is a signature of who we are as a people of a symbiotic society we call the Long White Cloud of New Zealand.
Everywhere we go the request for a haka is the same and although there is a veil of protocol to be respected (never to be performed when under the influence of alcohol or any other drug) - when it has been done with the blessing of the kaumatua on our hikoi it has been rapturously received across the whenua of Wiwi (lands of France).
Bien sur - the same can be expected when we say au revoir to France tomorrow and hikoi into Italy for four days that will intro us into the crowd goes wild leg of our trip, when we will watch the All Blacks go up against Georgia next Saturday at Cardiff in Wales.
Now that will be a royal reception worthy of a haka and no doubt when the emotion of the event kicks in so will the wairua that has covered us like a loyal korowai, and the boys from a tiny little town called Te Puna in the Bay of Plenty will tell the world that we are in the house at Cardiff.
Allez Te Puna, allez Le Black.
Aue, hu pane kau pane whiti te ra.
-broblack@xtra.co.nz
Tommy Wilson is a best-selling author.
