Up and out early to get to the train station, across the road. Turns out there was a lot of sitting around to be done, as we overestimated how long it might take us, to get up, shower, get ready, take the cases down, book out of the hotel and get to the station. We seem to have allowed an hour and a half, it took 20 minutes.
Anyway, better early than late. When French railways say the train leaves at 9:35, they don’t mean 9:35-ish. It’ll be there at the platform at 9:34:55, but out of sight by 9:35:10.
Paris to Lyon, Lyon to Saint Etienne. Due in at 12:35pm. Arrived at 12:35pm. The town is revelling in being a venue for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
We spent the afternoon sussing out the Rugby Village, which is basically a big area selling fast food and huge volumes of beer to crazy Aussie and Portuguese rugby fans. Also fun activities like fat suit Sumo wrestling. Some of these young people won’t remember the game, if they ever actually make it there.
The game is history now. Great atmosphere, and thankfully we did get to see a game, considering we started planning this in 2015 on the basis of watching the Rugby.
For the record, Australia beat Portugal 34-14 but didn’t have things all there own way. Portugal played superbly, especially considering their world ranking of 16. With Australia’s fall from grace, we’re only ranked 10 currently, so maybe I should of expected it to be as close as it was.
Stephen and Michelle
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