Ladies
Elizaveta (or Liza) Tuktamisheva was very impressive in this competition. I may have even enjoyed her more than at Skate Canada. Though she doubled a flip in her free skate, she just cannot miss on those jumps. They are so solid.
As impressive as Tuktamisheva was, I actually think this was a good competition for Alissa Czisny, even though she only won the bronze. It was good because she was still very much in the mix after an absolute disaster of a short program, meaning that the judges find her skating and (wonderful) short program to be extremely strong. And it was good because she was able to come back and win the free skate with a good skate, aside from a popped jump. That free skate is truly a work of art. I am going to look at the shaky short program as a fluke, since Czisny appears to be a lot more consistent than that skate would make it seem.
And how about Carolina Kostner winning yet another medal? She didn't need to compete here since she is already going to be in the Grand Prix Final, but she was definitely in it to win it and that's impressive.
Unfortunately for her, this season it appears Kanako Murakami is just not going to be able to contend with the cleaner and more elegant competition.
Men
I don't know what to say. Patrick Chan's quads are very impressive. His troubles with triple axels and his inability to skate consistently clean programs are less impressive. I did not enjoy watching his free skate. I see why he is winning this season, given the competition, but it's not really that fun to watch him skate the way he did in France.
Song Nan is very impressive, but wow, look at that program components score...can you imagine how dangerous he'll be if he can up that? He earns so many points on his amazing technical content.
Poor Nobunari Oda. He had a disastrous performance here and just really is a nonentity on the Grand Prix this season. Usually this is where he shines, so this doesn't bode well for his world medal chances.
Pairs
Volosozhar and Trankov were not perfect (they had that freak fall after the twist in the short program), but then, no one was in the free skate. Duhamel and Radford were able to stay on the program despite multiple falls (basically pointed out by Duhamel in the kiss and cry) so that tells you the caliber of the competition. I do really like Duhamel and Radford but this had to be disheartening to Evora and Ladwig, who were cleaner in the free skate. I was glad Bazarova and Larianov pulled it together a bit in the free skate and brought themselves up to second place.
Ice Dancing
Ice dancing was fairly predictable here. Virtue and Moir deserved to be way out in front. They keep getting an extended lift deduction so I guess that's something for them to work on. I didn't mind the first 10 seconds of their short dance here so maybe it's improved or I'm just used to watching it now. Not too much to say about the runners up. I think there are some interesting pieces in Pechalat and Bourzat's free dance but I really think they don't measure up to the top two teams this season.
I think the true comparison is between Virtue and Moir and Davis and White. I personally prefer both of Davis and White's programs. I think they're more challenging and better choreographed, but I suppose we won't know what the judges think until they go up against each other in the Grand Prix Final.
One more Grand Prix country competition coming up and then we have the Grand Prix Final. I'm very much looking forward to the final because there are some skaters I've been waiting to see go up against each other.