One of the many joys of covering rugby in France is ordering an early morning coffee and croissant , whilst watching the world go by with a copy the sports daily, L’equipe.

The pleasure is even more enhanced on a Monday and a Friday thanks to that wonderful golden periodical MIDI Olympique.

To the uninitiated MIDI Olympique is a newspaper devoted solely to rugby, and is nicknamed “le Jaune” (the yellow) due to the colour of its pages.

In 1929,when it was first published, all sports newspapers were printed on coloured paper, and on September 2 of that year, when the first edition was published, the only colour available was yellow the pages of the paper have remained golden to this very day.

Now owned by the newspaper group La Depeche, Jean Jacques Pouch was the man who launched that first edition.

The fact that France was deprived of any international rugby, followed by the outbreak of war,made life difficult for a newspaper which was originally sold only in the Toulouse area.

The Monday edition carries a red nameplate, and Friday’s a green, hence they are known colloquially as le Rouge, and le vert.

MIDI Olympique was published on Mondays only until spring 2006, when a Friday issue arose .

Now one of the oldest weekly French newspapers in existence, the figures for 2005 stated that 140,000 copies were printed on Mondays and 120,000 on Fridays.

Midol’s in depth coverage is second to none and gives the French Womens international team a quality coverage that other countries can only dream of receiving.

So here’s to another cafe creme and happy reading.