Allez les Blues!!!!!

Experienced my first live rugby mach yesterday.  France v. Italy at the Stade de France.  Not a compelling match as France won 46-20 and had a 46-6 lead with 10 minutes remaining but relaxed and allowed Italy two easy trys to make the score slightly more competitive.


Attended the match with John, an englishman, married to one of the women we have met through the local baby playgroup.  I was supposed to go with our neighbor, Eric, but when I called him on Saturday to finalize plans he reluctantly said he could not go.  He pretended to be sick but I think he just forgot to put it in his calendar.  Their shades have been down since Friday morning so I think that they are out of town for the weekend.  In the end it worked out best as John is a sports fan who used to play Rugby.


We met at the Chatou-Croissy RER station(John and Harri, his wife, live in Le Vesinet one RER stop west of us.)  We took the train to Chatelet where we exited the station to have lunch at the Frog and Rosbif.  An english pub in the heart of Paris.  The food was not that good but I was able to have a cheeseburger with fries(Not even close to the quality of Quatman cafe in Cincinnati but you take what you can get when you can find it).  The redeeming quality of the pub is that they have their own microbrewed beers. Very good and served cold.


We then returned to the startion and took the RER D to the Stade de France.  Lesson learned, for future events at the Stade we will take the RER B as the station for it is much closer to the Stade.  During the walk from the staiton to the Stade we passed a number of street vendors selling merquez, chipolatas and kebabs.  French tailgating?  Noticed that the vendors did not have sausage buns, instead they had taken a traditional baguette, torn it into 3 piece and cut a slit for the sausage.  May have to try one next time I go.


The Stade de France is nice but spartan.  The first thing  I noticed upon reaching our seats is that their is not a scoreboard.  There are two large video screens at each end but there is no where to permanently see a score or a game clock.  Occasionally the video on the screen would include a score and a clock but you had to squint as it was a very small box in the upper left hand corner.


The match was a sellout but we(Julia) had found a special deal for the tickets.  We bought 110 euro tickets but we found a bogo deal.  Our seats were very good.  We were on the 22 yard line about 6 rows up into the middle section.  Close enough to the middle to have good depth perception and high enough to be able to see the angles and speed of the game.


There were two bands in the Stade.  A blue clothed band to our left and a red clad band to our right.  I always enjoy sporting events with live music rather than the piped up volume of most north american sporting venues.


The fans were very polite.  The French clapped after the Italian anthem.  They even clapped during the introduction of the Italian team.  Not sure if this is typical or just because france was so obviously the better team and the Italians were not a threat.  Wonder if the French will be as polite when they play the English on the 20th?


What is the French fascination with doing the wave?  They must have tried to do the wave at least 20 times during the match.  Very distracting.


The symbol of the France Rugby team is the gallic rooster.  The fans wear what appear to be blue chickens on their heads in support of the rooster.  The all-blacks have the haka and the French have the blue chicken.  Not very intimidating.


The return home was interesting.  We had to cross under a motorway to return to the RER station.  There were two entrances to the underpass and French gendarmes were stationed at each entrance.  They would alternately close the entrances.  We were not sure why until we were finally allowed through and the underpass was jammed with people.  They were singing and very happy but moving very slowly.


I finally made a male friend and he tells me that they are moving to Aberdeen, Scotland by the 1st of May for a new job.  I may be stuck in the world of ex-pat mothers forever.


All in all a good time was had.  Hoping to make another male friend in time for the world cup.  Would be fun to return to the frog and rosbif to watch a few matches.