Lyon and the first Rugby match NZ v's Portugal

Friday 14th September 2007 (in Lyon)

Woke up at 8:30 am having had a beautiful sleep and Pam’s back all better. Had breakfast downstairs, over to get the car and park it in a 24 hour car park. Still bumper to bumper and it took Paul 20 minutes to manoeuvre the car out of its spot. Then off to explore the city. Found the Tourist Bureau and jumped onto a “hop on – hop off” bus tour. This has been the best way to discover the city as you have little ear phones and the commentary is in English. Thank goodness. Bought a McDonalds salad to eat on the bus and at the conclusion of our trip Paul went to collect the rugby tickets for tomorrow from Tane Norton who had been given the tickets to bring over from New Zealand, as the tickets had arrived after we had left Sydney. Pam went to explore the shopping. $A15 for a pair of knee hi’s pantihose! ($A22:50). I also needed a white bra but they were around $A80 so this purchase will have to wait. Did go into Printemps which I felt was more like D.J.’s 6th floor so did not purchase anything other than a cup of coffee. Had to show my receipt in order to use the toilet or pay .50euro! Did find a shop called Zara which had some great clothes – such a shame it is autumn and not summer over here. (Paul however is very grateful). Did buy a pair of black pants which were TOO LONG!!!!!! Can you believe it. At last – pants that are too long!!!!! For an extra 4Euro they will take them up for me and I can collect them next week when we come into Lyon from our apartment at L’Arbresle. Met Paul at around 5pm and watched an Adidas street advertisement utilising the All Blacks and the world cup theme. Difficult to explain but they had a rugby ball and rap music and balanced and danced on one foot, one elbow etc. The young ones will know what we mean. Back to our apartment, had a welcome bath and now downstairs for dinner and to watch England play South Africa. Meet some other Kiwi’s, 2 Swedes who had driven down for a long weekend, 2 Poms (1 pregnant even though on the pill aged 40 with hubby /special friend around 60), 2 Germans & 2 Irish. Good night – England lost badly. Interesting to note that the English people thought that the headlines would be along the lines “Good effort boys” where the Kiwis, had they lost a game, would be severely ridiculed and it would be raised in parliament! Off home to pack as have any early start tomorrow.

Saturday 15th September 2007

Had breakfast downstairs, paid our bill and collected the car from the 24 hour parking station. Drove to a free carpark out near a metro station, but close to where we had to head out of town after the game at Leon between All Blacks and Portugal. Thankfully had a very helpful Frenchman who assisted us with the purchase of our train tickets. The French to date have been wonderful – very helpful and charming. Met a couple of French people on the train who told us in broken English that some people from Turramurra were coming to stay with them next week! Our seats were only 14 from the front, and started off in the shade which was great as the temperature was at least 25 degrees, but then the sun moved (how dare it) and we were very hot. Purchased another cap and a couple of small radios which fitted neatly into our ear, which enabled us to hear the commentary in English. This made the game much more interesting, especially as the earpieces can be used at all the games. Cost euro$10. Good match with Kiwi’s thrashing Portugal. Great atmosphere with everyone very supportive when Portugal did something worthwhile. Left game 8 minutes early when the score was 101-3 so as to avoid the rush as we wanted to get back on the metro, collect our car and head off to L’Arbresle (pronounced L’Abrella) so we could catch the Aussie match against Wales (called Pay de Galles) in French. Arrived in our little village, found a hole in the wall as we needed euro and then to the nearest little pub to watch the game. They were in fact watching the soccer but Pam said “je suis Australienne” and they took pity on her, and switched it to the Rugby. Lovely people who went out and bought us chips, baby tomatoes and cheese for us to eat while we watched the game, and would not let us pay for it. Thankfully Australia won, although a number of errors and they did not look quite the force to be reckoned with that we had hoped for. Never mind – perhaps they are just warming up. After the game we found our little cottage and were met by the owners, his daughter and numerous children, who, fortunately between them spoke a few words of English because the owners did not speak ONE word. We spoke more French than they spoke English which isn’t saying much. We live upstairs in the cottage and the owners live downstairs. The view from all windows is of rolling hills, green trees and willows, white cows and white goats, blue sky and sunshine. T.V. not quite as attractive as not one channel (there are only 3) are in English, with no phone and no internet. All walls are timber and sloping upwards to a high pitch. Only problem is that we sometimes forget and hit our heads on the upward slope. Went into town, only one tiny shop open, and bought some milk, coffee, muesli and bread. We have never eaten so much bread in all our lives and will probably come back the size of a house. Went for a drive through the village, which took all of 37 seconds, and then had dinner at another little village (Saint-Bel) about 7 kms. away. Seemed to be the only one open and we had a lovely dinner of duck and white fish. Back home and off to bed.