Soccer Lyonnaise Style

Dimanche 13 Decembre:
We were up early to buy fresh produce from the markets along the river for dinner next week.
The view of the west bank of the Saone, looking south towards St-Georges Cathedrale

We could see the blue and white canopies of the market stalls on the opposite bank of la Soane, so we eagerly headed over.....

There were barrels of delicious olives of all types .....

      .... and a lady was selling Italian cuisine - arancini balls and canneloni!

I ended up buying a bowl of aubergine, rouge et juane capsicum, eschallots, garlic, tomatoes, and corgettes to make ratatouie and some champignon mushrooms to go in a risotto - yum. Cathy bought clementines and bananas and we both bought some lamb chops to go with the vegetables. Belinda and Craig bought some oysters for their lunch or a pre-dinner treat

On the way back over the river, we noticed how swollen it was - even flowing into the underground carparks!

We walked back through Vieux Lyon to look for a good restaurant selling local cuisine for dinner tonight after the soccer.

Below: The D line platform at Vieux Lyon is deep underground, this is just one of the escalators .....

On Sunday afternoon we had tickets to the soccer game between Lyon and Toulouse at Stade de Gerland, at the end of the B Line, in the southern suburbs of Lyon. It was quite an ordeal getting there on time with the crowds, buying 2 extra of the cheapest 15 euro tickets, finding the correct gate, getting through security check with our water bottles - no bottle caps allowed but empty bottles OK - the caps are dangerous as they might be thrown,  but we thought this was ridiculous as the bottles would cause more damage!!  The other difficulty we had was getting to our seats, as none of the security guards, and there were plenty of these, obviousl;y expecting trouble, were willing to help us.

We were late and missed the first of only 2 goals kicked in 90 minutes - no wonder the crowd can get overwrought, with boredom! Lyon won 2-0 and we left 15 minutes early to beat the crowds ( about 40 000 I think) to the train as we predicted that it would be crazy at the end and we needed to have a student at Cuire Station at the furthest north end of the C line by 7.30pm.

An injury to a player stopped play but he got up without needing the stretcher that was taken over to him.

 We fought our way to our "seats" only to find that everyone in the cheap seats actually stands up during the game ands sit down only at half time, so they can chant, jump up and down and salute the players as well as crouch as a protest when one of their players is unfairly sent off. Much to our dismay, we seemed to be amongst a crowd of men who all seemed to be smoking, so it wasn't long before there was a pall of smoke over the ground.

The half-time entertainment - a goal scorinmg competition by some junior players.....

 Food ready for thr hungry hordes at the end of the big game!!

 I noticed this sign - Rene Descartes, the French Mathematician who thought up the cartesian plane! It was absolutely freezing by the time we left the stadium at 6.45pm.

..... we took Bridget out to the end of the C line to Cuire station then rushed back for dinner in rue Merciere, not the most successful meal!