  To investigate the link between discrete, small-scale and continuous, large
scale mechanical properties of a foam, we observe its two-dimensional flow in a
channel, around an elliptical obstacle. We measure the drag, lift and torque
acting on the ellipse {\it versus} the angle between its major axis and the
flow direction. The drag increases with the spanwise dimension, in marked
contrast with a square obstacle. The lift passes through a smooth extremum at
an angle close to, but smaller than 45$^\circ$. The torque peaks at a
significantly smaller angle, 26$^\circ$. No existing model can reproduce the
observed viscous, elastic, plastic behavior. We propose a microscopic
visco-elasto-plastic model which agrees qualitatively with the data.
