Yet on what Uefa officials insist on calling "matchday minus one", the sun was shining on the country's capital and at the vast fan zone area that will cater for 90,000 people underneath the Eiffel Tower there was a mood of nervous optimism in the air.
After 10 days, telling himself that the God of his devout Catholic faith would want him to see his four children again, 36-year-old Javier succumbed and ate flesh preserved by night-time temperatures of minus 40C, thawed by the sun, carved into slivers and rationed to make them last.
I have been slow jogging daily for the last 20 to 25 years and the last 4 – 5 years, I have been slow jogging ( in the park in the bright sunshine – minus glasses & minus sun block in the tropical sun ) at about 8 kph for abt 20 mins each session twice a day.
Still, Richie Hawtin's Minus Stage could bring some darkness to the sun itself.
On a morning in late February, the temperature outside is a numbing minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit, and the sun, which makes its daily passage just above the horizon for only six hours, casts a light so weak it produces only shades of gray.
The Suffolk village of Metfield made sure no-one missed out by constructing its own mini-eclipse with giant inflatable versions of the sun, moon and earth.
It makes you feel like the sun is shining, that this mini drama is happening in your ears.
Scientists are dubbing the sun's exploits lately a "mini-max" because the maximum period of activity is shorter than usual.
There are rules and taboos, but there are literally three months when the sun never rises and it is minus 50.
And so we see it literally moving across the face of the sun, it's like a little mini eclipse.
