Bordeaux and Paris – June 17 -20

Back in Paris now on the second day of recovery after the Lyon and Bordeaux weekend. The weather in Paris hasn’t helped in the recovery process. After dropping the rental car back yesterday morning, we walked into Paris centre for a bit of sightseeing and the drizzle started as we set off. It gradually turned incessant and hadn’t stopped by this morning. A rain wetter than a soft soft day in Galway even! Going every direction and getting under your skin. Despite that we managed to see some of the main sights in between a few coffee breaks at coffee houses to get out of the rain. By 3pm we were rain beaten so a late lunch and pint in an Irish bar near the Eiffel tower and then back onto the metro back to the campsite. While I took it easy back here for the evening and watched England struggle through against Slovakia, Mark headed back into the city centre for a night out with a few Belfast mates. Slowly getting back to normal now after a decent lie on and managed a 25 minute run around the campsite and along the river in the rain…the first exercise of the holiday! Thankfully rain has stopped for now and hopefully we can get a dry day for Northern Ireland v Germany later.

There’s nothing more to say about the Ireland performance against Belgium. The craic was brilliant in Bordeaux all the same. A challenging drive across southern France and across the mountains wasn’t helped by some torrential downpours where visibility was almost nil at times. The 550km trip was made longer as a result, and the expensive tolls just kept coming! We had to drive around 12km past Bordeaux to our hotel and the opposite lane coming back into the city had a solid tail back all the way, and this was after 7pm! France definitely has traffic issues. Checked into our hotel by 8pm and headed into the city centre. A bunch of Irish young lads led the sing song on the public bus, and handed out beers to Belgian and Irish fans including ourselves. Sound lads. Their singing was non-stop and all good natured. One of the lads gave their Euro 2016 football to a small kid in a buggy just before they got off, and the young lad was delighted. Another sign of how our fans are doing us proud! Torrential rain followed us down the road into Bordeaux, and it went on for hours but luckily we were tucked under the canopy of the Blarney Stone pub when it started. And there we stayed! The buzz was good despite the rain and the Belgian fans we chatted to weren’t sure what to expect from their team. Mick Wallace sidled by at one stage looking for the pub door. He was a bit the worse for wear! Caught up with Damien Smyth and the Dundalk crew on the Friday night too, followed them to a bar around the corner when Damien managed to commandeer the DJ decks for a while. We called it a night after that as the Dundalk lads headed for a nightclub.

Saturday was a beautiful day thankfully and spirits were high among both sets of fans on the way into town. Bordeaux city centre looks beautiful, must come back and explore it properly sometime. We had quickly realised on the Friday night that chances of securing tickets last minute were slim to none. There were more Irish without tickets than with them in the city. Fanzone was the next best place to be and the craic was mighty there, helped by the weather. Belgian fans were obviously jubilant after their win but were keen to mix with the Irish and get us back into party mode.  As is the Irish way, we didn’t let the awful second half and result dampen our spirits or ruin the evening. Or maybe we were just parking the hurt and shame until the next morning, to be added to the hangover. Met up with the college buddies Jack and Mackey after leaving fanzone and after a tasty kebab dinner we headed back to the Blarney Stone. Paul ‘the Kid’ Martin found us in there too, after flying over on his friends plane! Mark and myself lasted until closing time and supper was a kebab once again! The heads were not great getting up on Sunday and facing the long drive back to Paris. The drive went grand up to the final 100kms or so when we hit serious traffic as well as the biggest toll booth I’ve ever seen. At least thirty booths with at least one hundred cars in front of us on each lane. Needless to say, that took a while to get through. We stopped off at the butchers and grocery and then treated ourselves to a nice BBQ back in the campsite. The rain started over night then but hasn’t beaten us yet!

Looking forward to seeing Parc des Princes today for the match, a stadium with a great history. The banter between Northern Ireland and Germany fans should be interesting, hopefully they can explain who Will Grigg is. Hard to see past a German win but reckon the precious win over Ukraine should see Norn Iron boys through. Then it’s off to Lille on the train tomorrow morning for the big one. We travel in hope more than expectation. To be honest I think it’s a miracle we need as I don’t think we have the players or guile to outfox Italy (even their second string) but if we start well and have some controlled possession and can create a few good chances for Longy then maybe. And we need the ref to be kinder to us this time. Fingers crossed…

Kevin McCarthy