Poussez ou Enchanté! Mais Non!

Friday 20th October 2017 - Toulouse.

Nice day today.  Warm and hot sunny spells.  This is our rugby match day...Stade Toulouse v Cardiff Blues.  I only just realised that the kick off wasn't till 9pm....I thought it was 8pm.  Our plan of attack was to have lunch at the van and then go into the city and then get to the Ernest-Wallon Stadium in the early evening.  However, in the morning Janice and I had a cycle ride to the stadium to satisfy ourselves that we could walk back to the site after the game and that we knew the route.  It turned out to be 3 miles from the site but we agreed that it was still easier than getting public transport back into the city and then back out to the site.

We went into the city and managed to avoid going into a single church, much to John's relief.  

We walked past the Arch commemorating the war dead of the region and through some pleasant parks and avenues.

Also to the Canal du Midi.  It starts here in Toulouse before heading off through Carcassonne and Beziers to the Mediterranean.

We wanted to see the gallery rooms of the Capiltole building but when we went it was closed for wedding ceremonies.  We went for coffee.  John has been practicing his French and managed to order coffees.  He is developing his vocabulary...which mainly consists of 'mais non' (but no!) if he doesn't understand....which is most of the time.

We tried the Capitole once more around 5pm and to our surprise it was open.  We were 'Enchanté' with what we saw.

There was a whole gallery of massive paintings of the banks of the Garonne by Henri Martin.  The building was beautiful too.

We had some early drinks and walked to Ernest-Wallon Stadium prior to the match.

I wore Janice's scarf French style.  It was a light blue so perhaps indicated my support for Cardiff although we were impartial really.

The pre game atmosphere was great.  A brass band played, the players were greeted as they came off the coaches and the Toulouse fans were very friendly.  In fact we got chatting to an Aussie from Brisbane who was in town on business.

We even gave the mascot a lift! Literally.

The beer tent.

We had learned from the Beziers game that a regular shout of fans was 'Poussez' meaning push but of course we laughed because it sounds like a different word in English....a word you wouldn't normally shout at big rugby players.  So, we used the 'Poussez' shout at every scrum, having a chuckle each time.  The match was a close game, 10 - 10 at half time and it finished, Toulouse 15 Cardiff 17.  A great win by Cardiff but If I was a Toulouse fan I would have been very disappointed because they didn't show enough desire to win in the second half and Cardiff were better at keeping the ball through the phases.

We walked back to the site, reflecting on a memorable day and great rugby experience.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strictly raining!

Image
Saturday 4th November 2017 - Vironvay. We had a rainy day forecast so we had a quiet day.  We had a drive to Louvier market and more importantly we made an important visit..... We also bought some brioche for a second attempt at a bread and butter pudding French style. I will have to check with Wendy to see what she thinks.  It was certainly tasty and disappeared quickly. Our day was nice and relaxing followed by a lovely meal. We watched Strickly Come Dancing for the first time, Sian and Janice are big fans and I sneekingly enjoy it too.  Ger puts up with it too. There was break in cloud for a while and although the photo isn't too good we saw a nice moon reflection on the Seine.
Read more

Bonfire Night but no fireworks!

Image
Sunday 5th November 2017 - Boulogne-sur-Mer. We said our fond farewells to Ger and Sian.  They are extremely kind and considerate hosts.  We enjoyed our stay very much. We moved north to stay at Boulogne so we would be close to the tunnel for tomorrow morning.  It felt very cold today despite some bright spells.  We felt so cold it was like a cold Bonfire Night in England.  We will not be celebrating Guy Fawkes here in France...they don't do that here. We arrived in Boulogne and had a little walk around.  It was a little dreary on a Sunday but the old fortified town area was nice with a grand cathedral. I came here about 3 years ago with my friend Bruce, so had some memories. We found an Aire de Camping Car and couldn't immediately park because of parked spectators cars at the entrance blocking the way.  The town football ground is next door and a game was in progress.  We waited for the end of the game to allow cars to leave before we could drive...
Read more

France is closed!

Image
Wednesday 1st November 2017 - Nogent-le-Roi. We had changed our plans a little by deciding that tomorrow we would visit Versailles. As we drove past Tours and northwards we realised that the roads were pretty quiet and when we stopped at a Lidl supermarket and found it closed we twigged that it must be a public holiday.  It is now November and it is All Saints Day.  The day that the French remember the dead.  It seems a great idea but I thought it might be a bit morbid thinking of the dead all day?  Whatever people were doing they were not in public places, they were not eating out, exercising or shopping. We called at one of our favourite places from two years ago, Chateaudun.  It's a small town south of Chartres. The chateau is very imposing.  We stayed at an Aire de Camping two years ago on a car park just below the chateau walls.  I am wearing long trousers for the first time in a long time.  I managed to avoid wearing them through October but...
Read more