Hunting season in France seems to last forever. Which I would not have a particular problem with … if hunters were not beating the bushes for animals only a few hundred yards from villages, here in the Languedoc.

When we first arrived in the south of France, early this year, I noticed that many people working outside the towns wore fluorescent vests. Road workers. People in vineyards. Farmers.

They wear green, orange, red. Eye-grabbing stuff. Garish. Bright.

The sort of colors that can be seen from a distance by hunters. The kind of colors not associated with wild animals.

But after most of a year living here, it has become clear that hunters are out there on any given day, often alarmingly close to town, and we know that is so because we can both see them and hear their shots.

Which led to me putting on, for the first time, a florescent-green vest while going for a walk on the edge of town.

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It was the last official act of the American-owned newspaper that had been published in Paris since 1887.

A party.

A month ago, the Paris newsroom was all-but shuttered and most of the remaining staff was laid off at what had been known, going back 129 years, as the Paris Herald, the Paris Herald Tribune, the International Herald Tribune (from 1967 to 2013) and, finally, the International New York Times.

NYT decided it did not need/could not afford what was a standalone newsroom in Paris, and now it is gone.

Some of the IHT staff, most of them left without jobs, met with IHT alumni, some of whom traveled to be in Paris on a crisp Friday night, on a small boat tied to the quay on the right bank of the Seine, to catch up with everyone and talk a bit about the old days, and what happens next.

Subsequent years may see more get-togethers, but this was the last event that had any imprint of the New York Times International Edition (as the IHT was known at the end). NYT apparently put up 2,000 euros toward the farewell soiree.

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Mike Trout was voted Most Valuable Player of the American League, it was announced today, and how about an “it’s about time!” for the Angels center fielder.

This was his second MVP award, but it could have been his fifth, given that he has led the league in one of the most important metrics, Wins Above Replacement (WAR), in all five of his Major League seasons.

(Only Babe Ruth had a longer AL streak, leading in WAR six straight seasons beginning in 1926).

Trout’s victory this year might mark a turning point in the “best statistical season” versus “best season by someone on a good team” MVP debate, which has raged since the award was created, most of century ago.

Which ought to be good for Trout, because the Angels are bad and seem unlikely to be anything else in the near term, no matter what sort of numbers he puts up.

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It was a rough three seasons for Los Angeles Lakers fans.

Not long after the conclusion of a five-titles-in-10-years run, those fans saw their team become an NBA afterthought … if not a laughingstock.

After the Lakers went 45-37 and made the playoffs, in 2012-13, the decline came hard and deep. To 27-55 in 2013-14 … to 21-61 in 2014-15 … to last season’s franchise-worst 17-65.

There were times during those three seasons, right through last season, actually, when it was hard to envision how the team could be turned around any time soon. Which somehow seemed deeply wrong, given how good the Lakers have been over the years.

This season’s Lakers, however, are off to a 7-5 start, which includes a blowout of the Golden State Warriors, 117-97, at Staples, and a 123-116 victory at Atlanta, one of the Eastern Conference’s better teams.

That 7-5 puts them on pace for 48 victories, which may be a stretch, but it gives Lakers fans hope after that had been a rare commodity in the final years of the Kobe Bryant Era.

Speaking of Kobe …

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It’s time. Jurgen Klinsmann must go.

He now is inflicting real damage on the U.S. national soccer team.

The U.S. Soccer Federation really has only One Job that fans insist it complete:

Qualification for the Fifa World Cup.

A limp and lifeless U.S. team was crushed 4-0 in Costa Rica tonight. The U.S. has lost in Costa Rica before, but not like this.

That is two defeats in two final-round qualifying matches for the U.S., leaving them at the bottom of the six-nation “Hexagonal” with 0 points and a goal-differential of minus-5.

It is not too late for the U.S. team to rally in its final eight matches, next year, and finish in the top three of the hex and gain direct qualifying for Russia 2018. Or even finish fourth and reach a playoff against Asia’s fifth-best qualifier.

But the federation cannot allow Klinsmann to take this team into a bigger hole than he has already dug.

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I follow two national soccer teams. The U.S., of course, but also the UAE, after working six years in Abu Dhabi.

Both teams have key matches in 2018 World Cup qualifying tomorrow.

The Yanks play at Costa Rico, trying to avoid a second defeat to open Concacaf qualifying, following the 2-1 home loss to Mexico.

The UAE, however, faces a more dire prognosis if they cannot win tomorrow night.

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In Europe, the belief that soccer is more interesting to watch than American football is widespread. Approaching unanimous.

If that preference is questioned, what often comes up is this: “American football has too many breaks in play. Soccer is continuous action.”

The NFL RedZone package, however, turns that complaint on its head.

It is the NFL that becomes nonstop and usually packed with meaningful action, while whatever one soccer match followed for any one minute … is extremely likely to feature 60 seconds of 22 guys running around accomplishing nothing.

It turns out that those breaks between NFL plays allow RedZone directors to jam something interesting from other games into even the most anticipated single match-up of the day.

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It was on November 11, 1918, that World War I came to an end.

For several nations, and especially France, the first world war was far more deadly than World War II, and that may explain why Armistice Day — known as Veterans Day in the U.S. — remains closely observed, particularly in rural France. Such as in the village where we live.

Yesterday, more than 100 people — from a population of 600 — attended a ceremony held near the western edge of the town, where stands the memorial for French soldiers from the village who died during World War I.

The statue features a soldier, wearing the helmet and uniform of the Great War, looking defiant, the barrel of his rifle clutched in his right hand.

Armistice Day remains important in France because of the death toll the country endured during the war — 1.4 million dead from a male population of 20 million.

Twenty-one of those dead came from this small village, which a century ago could not have had a population much greater than 700. Twenty-one dead young men … that would have left a hole in the town’s heart.

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Qualifying for the soccer World Cup, any of them, should be easy for the U.S. national team.

Jurgen Klinsmann, however, is about to make it difficult.

The Yanks lost 2-1 tonight to Mexico in Columbus, Ohio, the first match in the Concacaf “Hexagonal” and the first defeat to Mexico on U.S. soil in five World Cup qualifying campaigns, going back to the 2002 .

The previous four, all at Fortress Columbus, had ended 2-0 to the U.S.

Or dos a cero, as this fixture was known in Mexico. Until tonight.

Reporters (like this one or this one, and this one) left the defeat at the feet of Klinsmann, the bubble-headed U.S. coach from Germany.

First, a 3-5-2 formation, which the U.S. rarely plays, or perhaps it was a 3-4-3, which the U.S never plays. Either way, it left things open in the back for the first Mexico goal, and a panicked return to the familiar 4-4-2 formation. Then, a tactical failure (by John Brooks) in the final minutes led to no one defending the back post on a corner, and that is where Mexico scored the winner.

So, there goes Mexico, with an away win, and there goes the U.S. with a home defeat, and next up for the Americans is a match in Costa Rica, which leads the group on goal difference.

And failing to win in Costa Rica is a “thing” for U.S. soccer teams. Which, if continued four days hence, would leave the U.S. with zero points from two matches and very little margin for error the rest of the way.

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I am a fan of Appalachian Spring, the finest orchestral work by the American composer Aaron Copland.

Much of its 45 minutes are tuneful, but one line of melody is the most pronounced and the most enjoyable. The kind of thing you hum while out on a walk today … tomorrow … the next day … which is pretty much the definition of an earworm.

I heard the “Skaker Hymn” part of this when I was 10 years old. It was the music used by a TV network (I’m thinking CBS) for a special report entitled: “D-Day Plus 20 Years”, which I watched with my grandmother.

The network used Copland’s  powerful, ponderous take on “Shaker Hymn” — befitting a documentary on the Normandy landings in northern France in June of 1944.

The trumpet announces (at the 31:19 mark) the return of what previously had been a light, delicate air … and eventually it sounds rather like the march of a victorious army.

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