France v Austria - World Cup Qualifier

Not being able to help ourselves with our desire to finally see some world class football. We took ourselves along with some other Aussies out to Stade de France last week, to see the World Cup Qualifiedr between France and Austria.

France have been struggling a little with their qualification for South Africa 2010, coming 2nd in their group, and indeed lost to Austria 1 - 0 in their last meet back in Austria earlier in their year. Sadly for France the outcome of their group was such that regardless of the result of this game they were destined to finish 2nd in their group which meant they still have not qualified for the World Cup, but they are not out of it at the same time.

Despite this fact, there was a sellout crowd at the Stade de France of 80,000 (home to the 1998 World Cup Final). We were very pleased when we arrived at our seats to discover that there were 40,000 French flag distributed amongst the seats for us to wave throughout the game. So we grabbed our flags and settled into our seats on the lower level in the corner of the ground.

The stadium slowly filled and by the time the two teams came out onto the field it had reached a roar. After a stirring rendition of 'Le Marseillaise' (during which I find it very difficult not to start singing the Brisbane Lions club song) the game got underway.

Austria almost opened the scoring after 10 mins, only to be denied by an acrobatic save from the French keeper. This early strike stirred the French team and from this point onwards they finally started finding their feet and launched numerous attacking raids only to be denied by the Austrian defense. The Frenchmen's hard work was rewarded with a goal by Benzema after 18 minutes. 10 minutes later, French hero Henry was barely touched as he was brought down in the box, but the referee had no hesitations in pointing directly at the spot. Henry picked himself up, and stepped up to the mark to casually slot away France's 2nd goal after 27 mins. It could easily have been 3 or 4 before half time, if not for some wayward shooting and poor last touches by the French players. However they went into the main break, leading 2 goals to nil.

France opened up the 2nd half looking a little slack, and Austria were able to pounce on this slackness picking up a lucky goal 2 mins into the 2nd half. This goal once against woke up the French team and they continued to dominate for the next 25 mins. During this time they were rewarded for their persistance with a 3rd goal by Gignac in the 67th minute. This would finalise the scoring for the evening and when the referees whistle sounded for full time, everyone (except the small group of Austrian fans) would leave happy with the result at 3-1.

The National Anthem

Henry's Goal

Part 2 - Things I ate and Drank

For the 2nd part of our weekend in Courjon & La Rochelle, I am going to go through this in chronological order.

We hopped of the train in La Rochelle on Friday afternoon and after a bit of a wander around town headed to a cool little wine bar called "La Guignette" Here they specialise in flavoured local wine. All they do is get some white wine, mix it with some fruits and volia! We tried, 'Le Rince-Goret' (citrus fruits) 'La Rouge' (red fruits) and 'La Verte' (Apple). They all tasted pretty good, and the best bit is that the wine on tap at the bar. Just take up your empty bottle when you have finished for a re-fill.

After filling up on wine we headed to a local restaurant, for dinner. For dinner I had what

was described in the menu as the "Duck Pyramid"(pictured left after I had eaten half). However it was more of a cylinder than a pyramid (but I wont hold it against them). It had a bottom layer of mashed potatoes, on top of which was a some caramelised onions. On top of this was a big fat slice of foire gras. Finally on top of all of this was a whole leg of duck. It was easily one of the best things I have ever eaten. It was also one of the fattiest things I have ever eaten. But I think thats what made it so good.

Blotting to copybook slightly we headed off for lunch at McDonalds on Saturday. This was only a precursor for the cheesy goodness we were going to experience at dinner on Saturday night.

Saturday night started off quietly with a bit of foire gras on some toasted bread. To wash down our foire gras, we did so with a bit of the local specialty from the region called 'Pineau'. Pineau is

effectively is a fortified wine and is made by mixing traditional fortified wine, with grape juice, and the result is a very strong very sweet liqueur. After this it was time for dinner, which was a traditional French meal of raclette. What is raclette, you may ask? Well I think the best way to describe it, is its basically Korean bbq, but with cheese. You have a big grille in the centre of the table which you use to cook you meat on. However under the large grille there are also small paddles for each person that you place a square of cheese on. You then put your paddle with cheese into your slot, this slot heats up your cheese until it melts. Then you take your cooked meat off the grill ontop, take your melted cheese on the paddle below, then scrape the cheese off your paddle and all over your cooked meat. Then you eat. Yum yum! The meat we enjoyed with our cheese, was Jambon sec, saucisson, salami as well as baked potatoes. Dinner was washed down with a nice local red. It was cheesy but oh so good.

After dinner it was time for what was my highlight of the weekend. We had a chance to try some cognac which was bottled in 1865 (yes thats not a typo). So we had some 144 year old cognac and my god, I had only the smallest sip, and it felt like my mouth was going to explode. It was like someone had punched me in the face. But it was a fine way to finish off the evening before some more feast the next day.

Sunday lunch is traditionally a big meal in French households and we certainly were in for a treat on this Sunday. Lunch time, and we had 'Confit du Canard' (ie some more duck) It was cooked to perfection in its own fat, and once again we washed it down with a local white.

So all in all a great weekend of gastronomy.

La Rochelle et Courjon (Part1 Places we went)

(Main Railway Station at La Rochelle)

So last weekend we went down to the South West of France, on the TGV initially to a place called La Rochelle as a base for going to our friend Aurelie's parents house. About an hour inland, in a tiny ville out in the countryside called Courjon.

I am going to split this post into two pieces. Firstly on all of the places that we went and what we saw. Secondly, on all of the food and drink we consumed throughout the weekend. First of all, I will begin with the places we went.

We started out hopping off the TGV in La Rochelle, a beautiful and historic town on the east coast of France. Aparently the town was founded in the 10th century and became a major town by the 12th century because of its harbour. Infact according to wikipedia "The main activities of the city were in the areas of maritime commerce and trade, especially with England, the Netherlands and Spain. Until the 15th century, La Rochelle was the largest French harbour on the Atlantic coast, dealing mainly in wine, salt and cheese."

Indeed you can see the old entrance to the harbour and the fortifications which still stand today (and are still the entrance to the harbour) A little bit of more recent history about La Rochelle courtesy of wikipedia "During the Second World War, Germany established a submarine naval base at La Pallice (the main port of La Rochelle). A German stronghold, La Rochelle was the last French city to be freed at the end of the War. A siege took place between 12 September 1944, and 7 May 1945, in which the stronghold, including the islands of Ré and Oléron, was held by 20,000 German troops under a German vice-admiral Ernst Schirlitz. Following negotiations by the French Navy frigate captain Meyer, and the general German capitulation on May 7, French troops entered La Rochelle on May 8."

Finally I could not go past this little tidbit of information for all of you movie buffs "The main port of La Rochelle became the setting for the movie Das Boot. The U-Boat scenes in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark were also shot in La Rochelle."

Anyway I ate some pretty nice food and drank some pretty good alcohol here, but I will detail this in the next part.

Late in the evening on Friday we headed to Courjon a small little town where Aurelie is from and where we spent the weekend with her family. It is small and out in the country side. I was awoken on Saturday morning to the sounds of hunting dogs, and gunfire off in the distance, and the hunters were out in force looking for some sanglier, (wild boars) that roam around these parts

Saturday afternoon we headed off in the car around the local area, our first stop was an old roman town, now called Saintes but back in the day went by the Roman name of Mediolanum Santonum. Now I am going to once again dig into wikipedia for a bit about the history of of this place as well. "It was founded in about 20 BC. Some estimations show that Saintes had about 15,000 inhabitants in those days, and that its borders were almost the same as today.

Saintes was the capital of the former province of Saintonge." Hence the name. These days it is a big functional regional centre, with about 30,000 inhabitants. There are quite a few relics from its former days as a large roman town and we visited a couple of these. Firstly we headed to the

Basilique Saint-Eutrope de Saintes, a large church in town that was built in 1081. Sadly during the religious wars in the 1700's the 'top' roman style part of the church was

effectively demolished and a more neo-roman style church was built on the same spot.

However, the underground crypt from roman times still survived and is open to the public to wander in and have a look around. (Which you can see here on the right)

After we left the church we headed on over to the old Roman

Amphitheater that still stands giving an insight to the Roman heritage of the town. So we wandered up, paid our 2 euro entry and headed inside. This was pretty cool, and so far I am pretty

certain that this was the oldest thing I have ever seen in my life. This dates from the formation of the city around 20 BC.

On Sunday we headed out to another Roman Style Church, this time in (a town whose name I forget, oh the shame!) The interesting thing about this church is that architecturally it is a Roman style church and it still stands and has done so since the 13th century. There are not many Roman style churches left in France as most of them were torn down and replaced with Gothic style churches in the 17th & 18th centuries.

On the way back to La Rochelle to catch the train home to Paris, we came across fields full of wind powered electricity generators, such as this one.

Paris Roller Dimanche

(All these pics here are courtesy of the 'Rollers & Coquillages' Website) I was too scared to take my camera the first time for fear of falling and breaking it.

Put on your hypercolour t-shirt on, grab some C&C Music Factory for your walkman and come and meet me with your roller blades at Bastille on Sunday.

The fact that the fad that was roller blading ended long before Hey Hey it's Saturday first left our screens somehow never reached France. Roller blading (or as it is called here "Rollers") is still supremely popular, and the sport continues to grow year after year in France. I am not sure why this is. In Paris 'Rollers' are a legitimate form of transport, and one thing that struck me when I first arrived here, is the sheer number of people you see wearing 'Rollers'. You will see them in a shop, sitting at a cafe or on the metro. Go to any sports store, and there is a very large section entirely dedicated to all things rollers.

Not being wanted to be left behind by the fashion of Parisians, I myself have rejoined the army of those who own Rollers. My last pair, I think were discarded around 1995, around the same time that puberty was in full swing. Now 14 years later, I once again own a pair of Roller Blades.

So last Sunday, I took myself and my 'Rollers' out to Bastille to take part in the weekly 'Paris Roller Dimanche'. Which basically involves a 20km skate around the streets of Paris, with about 10,000 other people. What is good, is that they actually close the streets for the rollers to come through (there is a full police escort, including police on rollers themselves) Its a great way to see the city, and is a lot more relaxing than trying to navigate your way through all of the traffic.