I have been on every continent, aside from Africa and Antarctica, and have been paying attention to sports and sports reporting my entire adult life, and I can say without hesitation that the matchless city of Paris and the great country of France hold these distinctions:

No city and no country are less interested in organized, professional sports.

This is the country that was behind the formation of many of the world’s foremost organizing sports bodies. The acronyms FIFA (soccer), FIA (motor racing), FINA (swimming) and UCI (cycling) … all come from French titles. It was a writer for a French sports publication, L’Equipe, who came up with the idea for the Champions League, the planet’s greatest club sports tourament.

And it was a Frenchman born in Paris, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who was critical to the resurrection of the Olympic Games, in 1896.

Yet, to be in Paris is to live in something close to a sports-free zone. Which many probably think isn’t an entirely bad idea.

What has Paris got to offer?

One middling professional soccer club, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), one important tennis tournament (the French Open), the finish line for the Tour de France … and already we’re getting thin on the ground of significant sports events here.

France is one of the wealthiest countries in Europe and the world, yet its professional soccer league (Ligue 1) is clearly second tier, lagging in popularity, finances and caliber of play far behind leagues in England, Spain, Italy and Germany … and arguably Turkey, Russia, The Netherlands, Mexico, and Portugal, too. And I wouldn’t be so sure the French champion (Lyon or Marseille or PSG, generally) would defeat the champions of leagues of modest pedigree such as those in Japan and the United States.

If you look, hard, you can find some professional basketball in Paris, and it hosts the occasional track meet. Outside Paris, there is some enthusiasm for French rugby, and for road racing (such as the Paris-to-Dakar event).

But that relentless excitement that surrounds sports in so many countries in the world … the perpetual buzz ahead of the next big event … is just not present here.

What is this about?

I’m going to make a couple of guesses.

–The French are more interested in individual recreational activities than professional ones. I know many French people who are interested in kayaking or canoeing or sailing, and I know of others interested in extreme sports like mountain climbing. Perhaps the French just aren’t that interested in collective endeavors.

–This is a country with a vibrant intellectual life. As noted in the previous post, this is a nation of thinking and thinkers, where educated people can argue over who is the most interesting philosopher currently alive. Sports seems almost below the dignity of many people here, and especially in Paris. Shallow and silly and pointless.

So, how does this manifest itself?

France is a second-tier player in club soccer. Only one French club has won the Champions League title since 1955 — Marseille in 1993. Only one other French club has played for a title in the past three decades, Monaco in 2004.

France, co-founder of the Olympics, is now an also-ran in Olympics competition. It won only seven gold medals at Beijing in 2008 (Michael Phelps won that many by himself), and its gold came in fencing (2), cycling (2), Greco-Roman wrestling, men’s team handball and swimming. South Korea and Australia won more gold, Ukraine won as much as did France. Jamaica was only one behind.

Even the nation’s most popular individual pro sports event, cycling’s Tour de France, hasn’t been won by a Frenchman since Bernard Hinault did it — in 1985.

And those semi-organized street/pickup soccer or basketball games that you can find in almost city in the world? Rare in this city.

So, anyway, you can be in France and not really have sports around you. Which can be difficult for some, liberating for others.

For certain, it’s strange for just about everyone — who isn’t from France.