Drop-kick into Bordeaux.

Saturday 9th September 2023. Sun-Pessac, Bordeaux.

Quite a surreal day. I started in rural Limosine and ended up in the rugby cauldron of Bordeaux city. This was the start of the trip I have been looking forward to for the four years since the last World Cup.

Tim helped me fit the bike in the back of his pick-up….

We drove to the eastern edge of the city and he dropped me off in a supermarket car park for the start of my solo journey.

Tim, as always has been a great host and his role hasn’t finished yet because he will ‘babysit’ the motorhome and pick up Janice next weekend from Limoges airport so that she can come and find me somewhere in southern France!

I started my ride into the city centre and could instantly spot the many green shirted Ireland fans and the similar number of red shirted Welsh supporters. I stuck out like a sore thumb in my England shirt but at least rugby fans are friendly.

Bordeaux is a beautiful city with the Garonne river flowing through and grand buildings on display. It is big and I believe it has a population of around a million.

I located the fan zone but no matches had started yet. I decided to ride to the edge of the city where my cheap hotel was situated so that I could stash my panniers.

I returned to the city centre and settled down at a bar that had set up a screen outside and in the shade of Basilique Saint Michel. The atmosphere was a great mixture of rugby cultures with French, Irish, Welsh and a couple of English fans too. I watched the end of the Italy v Namibia game and chatted to some Welsh fans.

The main afternoon match was Ireland v Romania and I went to the Rugby Village to watch and see what was on offer. It is a big rectangual area with a giant screen. It is free, and water is freely available but shade was only available under a few trees on the left fire of the area. Fortunately there weren’t too many people and most could get under the trees.

I returned to the original bar and whilst the Australia v Georgia game was on I chatted to two guys, one from Southampton, ex marine and one Australian from Sydney who was an immigration lawyer in Belgium. We had a great chat about rugby and lots more.

The last match of the day was the crunch game between Argentina and England. They are probably or main rivals to win the Pool and bearing in mind Englands poor form and Argentina being rated higher than England I didn’t have great expectations. I returned back to the Rugby Village to watch the game. It was dark now and a little cooler.

The place was much busier and as you can tell a lot of Irish fans were around.

The game didn’t start too well when an England player was given a red card after about 5 minutes. However, it felt like our patron Saint ‘George’ Ford came to our rescue drop-kicking goals from anywhere in the Argentina half. England actually defended well and took all kicks. The referee did a pretty good job of penalising the Argies too. Final score 27-10 to England. There weren’t many England fans in the crowd but from a couple I spoke to they were quite upbeat for England.

I was pretty shattered by the end of the game and I caught the tram back to my hotel for a much needed rest.