Day 1 -- After arriving in France at 11AM on an 830AM flight, day 1 of the trip began. And by began, there ARE people out there who enjoy standing in a queue more than the British: THE FRENCH. The group of hockey friends I was traveling with (A. Frewin, E. Howes, A. Mackinnon, and P. Thomson), and myself stood in line to get train tickets into Paris for longer than our flight from Manchester to Charles de Gaulle. Now if that didn't sentence made sense, then surely my French was as
understandable. Cannot get far when all you know is how to compliment
girls........ Prior to that, the EU travelers stood in the queue at border control for 15 minutes longer than I did (no idea how long I was in line for...). Normally I'm the one being bored senseless the "All Passports" queue.
By 1230ish we finally got into Paris. Our first stop was Notre Dame. Without soliciting for too long, we moved on to find food. You cannot blame any of us as most of us had not eaten since our awakening some odd hours earlier. We refueled with ham and cheese buttys from a side street vendor. Then began the leisurely walk to Gare de Paris Bercy where our train to Clermont-Ferrand would depart! Via Mackinnon's navigation skills we ended up in the correct area, just not the correct station-- missed the mark by about 5 minutes, but no worries as we reached the right station!
Mackinnon had made contact earlier with others from the team who were leaving from the same station on an early train. Low and behold, their train had been delayed 2 hours due to a fatality on the tracks. The delay allowed us to catch up to the others and join their train, evading an even further delay to our originally scheduled train.
CLERMONT BOUND. 3 hours of naps and Frewin spending thirty odd quid on Mars Bars, drinks, and other sorts of food. Not to mention a fiver on internet and 200 international texts. His money budgeting was working flawlessly.
Upon our arrival in Clermont, we were greeted by two of the tournament's organisers. They welcomed us warmly to Clermont and ushered us to the rink. There we met up with our 15+ hour driving Martin Klefas-Stennett who had brought our smelly hockey bags miles from home thru France.
Again, nothing is more important to a growing appetite than feeding it food. We were taken to Les 3 Brassuers which was close to our hotel. Our punctual arrival was just in time for England's match versus Sweden. Everyone (seemed to at least) cheer on England who pulled out a 3-2, come-from-behind, result.
Bed was next. Our first of six (yes, six 20 minute period games) was to start at 830AM the next morning.
Fun fact of the day: my camera decided to bow out of this trip and succumb to yet another lens error. So the quality of my photos will deteriorate in France as I was left to take photos with an Ipod. Dear Apple, give the Ipod Touch a REALLY good camera in the future. Dear Nikon, you disappoint me... This is the second time this has happened, sort it out! Dear France, just had to make my camera conk out whilst taking a photo of a shop called "American Car Wash".
Day 2 -- The tournament began bright and early Saturday morning. The Metros matched up against six teams hailing from all over France, Switzerland, as well as locally in Clermont. Granted, these results may be skewed as I am going off a confusing table... The game results are as follows:
Mont-Dore 4 : Manchester 2
Manchester 1 : Sangliers 3
Joker 1 : Manchester 0
Manchester 1 : Clermont 2
Geneva 6 : Manchester 2
Manchester 1 : Montpellier 2
Following the conclusion of the Metros final game of the day, 4 members of the team were elected to play in the All-Star game. They were Del Perona-Wright, Jeff Holliday, Alex Frewin, and myself. It was a tremendous honour to be sent to the game, even though my legs were dead!
Fun fact of the day: I was beaten on the draw several times by a 60+ year old former French Olympian. That gentleman had the fastest hands I had ever seen in my life. Let me repeat: IN MY LIFE. I hope when I am his age, I still have the ability to skate like he can. His fitness was unreal!!!
Day 3 -- The tournament concluded and was finished with a small award ceremony. It was another scorcher in Clermont with the afternoon free to recover. The weather all weekend had been a very big difference from the expected stormy weather predicted prior to departure. Each team only had 2 fixtures remaining.
Dammarie 3 : Manchester 4
Strasbourg 1 : Manchester 1
Regardless of the lackluster of wins, the tournament was a really pleasure to be a part of. I enjoyed playing tons of hockey. The line of Szepes-Gunn-Mackinnon seemed to produce and that was something to be happy with!
Fun fact of the day: Put Paddy anywhere around time that is not occupied and he will suggest getting a beer and relaxing. In France, it is not likely to be accepted with those prices. Trip tip, order water. Nothing beats free in France.
Day 4 -- At 830AM we returned to Clermont's train station for farewells. A great weekend had to come to a close. The train departed and the lot of us were on our way back to Paris. The original five had some unfinished sightseeing in Paris to do. All the big places had to be seen so I could cross them off my "to see" list. The Eiffel Tower was first on our agenda. And I will be honest, it is impressive that it is there, but it really is "meh". I found the Arc de Triomphe to be more exciting in terms of display-- due in part to my viewing of the Tour de France. I can say I have walked the Champs-Élysées where many great cyclists have grasped glory in the final stage (since 1975). Our sightseeing adventure ended with a trip to the Louvre. It is quite a picturesque scene, but the pyramid is just there. And that's about it.
The fantastic-five concluded the trip by taking the train to the airport in the wrong direction. Auber was our unscheduled stop, but no one panicked (even though our flight boarded in less than 2 hours). We broke speed-barriers and made it to the airport in just under an hour.
The shores of Britain seemed so welcoming outside the plane's window.
Fun fact of the day: Any mention of, "American" in a sentence while talking in an audible voice on the train will prompt an angry Frenchman to to turn around and shout at your group in French referring to the lot as, "a bunch of obnoxious Americans."
France in review: it was well, as depicted??? Lost for "age appropriate" adjectives on this one... The hockey guys & girls in Clermont were great and friendly. The Parisians on the other hand: as rude as I had been told they were. I just didn't really find the French experience all too appealing outside of the quaint-Clermont friends. But I found it interesting that you can buy full 2 feet-long baguettes for .28 Euros. Folks, that's 22p! That's $0.35 cents!(American). Other then that, expect to pay up the wazoo as France is expensive, expensive, and more expensive.
Disclaimer: Not trying to slag off Paris, but it is just not my cup of tea. Its really just one of those, "I went there so I can now say I've been" kind of things.
It seems this year my timing has been impeccable.
