Georgia on my mind

I thought I might have used this headline as far back as 2007, because 15 years ago I was also in Bordeaux to watch Georgia play in a Rugby World Cup final. On that occasion they played against Ireland, and really should have won...... check out the entry here

This time they were playing Fiji, and once again they gave a good account of themselves  and very nearly fashioned a win with the last move of the match. At the final whistle both teams were collapsed across the length of the pitch as they had given their all in oppressive heat, as has been the case over Southern Europe for some time.

The match was played at the new football stadium which we travelled to by tram. I must say if I was building a new city somewhere, I would definitely model the tram system on the one in use in Bordeaux. From the airport it is about 35 minutes into the town centre. All the lights give priority to the tram over the cars, and there really are not too many of those compared with other major cities. On exiting the ground after the match, we were on a tram within 20 minutes with another 30 minutes until we arrived back in the city centre.

We went to the seaside on Sunday, Acheron, about 45 minutes on the train, where they have the largest sand dune in Europe. We did not scale it although there were maintained pathways to the top, but on our return to Bordeaux, there were two large cruise ships in port, mirroring once again our experiences all those years ago.

So after three days of good food, company and alcohol, we are back in Blighty where it is wet and windy. Plus ca change!! 

Frugal February

 The Six Nations rugby is well under way now with Ireland and France showing World Cup winning form. The rest will be hoping they have peaked too early.

England beat Wales which shows they are moving in the right direction although the debate now centres around their captain rather than coach.

We planned to go to North Wales on Friday to watch the U20 game against England but we had a blow out on the way and watched the first half in a layby on the A55. That said the England back line looked very quick and they ran out deserved winners too. There was a Chessum brother in each England  team with younger one coming in at 6' 9 ".

Golf dinners have kicked I  again with three in three weeks, but now we are ab.e to relax for a couple of weeks. This entry is being composed in LHR T3 so watch this space for more news of the significant birthday adventure.

I do look forward ro meeting up with the S Club again next season and we have planned a trip to Nice during the Rugby World Cup. We plan to watch a few matches on TV and take in the atmosphere. Tickets are reasonably priced but flights and hotels are ridiculous prices when the home nations are concerned. So I have sold my England v Samoa tickets in Lille and instead SWMBO and I are off to Bordeaux for Fiji v Georgia. That should be a hoot.

Two other news items. Number 2 son is heavy with child, their first, and our neighbours house is up for sale, so potentially new neighbours after 20 odd years. Let's hope a family buys it and not a developer with an eye to turning it into flats. Time will tell.

Gilets jaunes

A series of weekends away see me today in Hamburg for number 2 son's stag celebration. There are 16 of us and I am oldest by a good 25 years. Consequently I need to pace myself. Yesterday was random drinking with a visit to a mega beer kellar with stein after stein on offer. I seemed to drink them for hours with no visible reduction in the amount of beer in the glass!!

Today we have been curling and then had a bar all to ourselves for what are called the Proll Olympics. This consists of a series of pub games unlike any you could imagine. Popping balloons with staple guns, flipping pencils like you would beer mats and stopping spinning coins are mixed in with giant jenga, giant pick-a-stick and spoof. To add continuity there was also table curling to play.

Sadly the stag missed most of this as he had a quiet few hours in bed after becoming tired and emotional earlier in the afternoon.

Last weekend we had our traditional 6 Nations trip away. Normally we take in France or Italy but the France game was on a Sunday, when Paris is closed, and Italy fishes with my mother-in-law 80th birthday. We,therefore, decided to go to Bordeaux to watch Scotland v England and Ireland v Wales in a bar. It all worked really well except for the yellow vests deciding to have a mini riot on the Saturday. We were in the old town which they avoided for fear of getting hemmed in by the police, but the damage we saw on the way home must have been heart breaking for the businesses affected. The glaziers had a good revenue stream though.

We also visited St Emilion, another World Heritage site to add to our list and touched a bottle of 1948 Petrus Pomerol listed at €9000. Maybe another time!!!

Proper 6 Nations next weekend lets hope for some better weather!

Le Bateau dans Bordeaux

So The Philanderers rugby world cup tour continued at the weekend, with a fine few days in Bordeaux. Fine was the key word as the weather cracked the flags and a few glasses were raised to the outstanding performances from the teams of the Northern hemisphere......hmmmm!

The Ireland v Georgia game was a cracker with the local and neutral in the crowd cheering on the Georgians, who should have won. It was just their self belief and a sense that they weren't used to winning which ultimately cost them. England were, of course, England but the Tongan win over Samoa gave them a bit of a hand, so a quarter-final spot should still be on the cards.

But enough of the rugby. Bordeaux is an excellent place for a long weekend. It seemed bigger than Lille but had many of the attributes, good food, chic filles and plenty of wine. The city sits about eight miles up the river Gironde so it came as a shock to see a ten storey cruise ship in town the first morning. A trip to the harbour area though quickly enforces the long term use of the city as a port, not least when the German Atlantic fleet used it as a base during the Second World War. The Cockleshell Hero's, a team of Royal Marines, are remembered for their sorte up the river in canoes, when they destroyed a number of German cargo and war ships. Two of the twelve survived and returned home via Spain and Gibralter. The others were either drowned or captured and executed.

So thats the RWC embraced for the moment, next stop Paris for the semi's if L'Angleterre manage to make it!!