Paris is a city I just can't warm to. I love city life but Paris has been looming over this trip heavily for me. No luck getting the tickets beforehand as I mentioned in a previous blog, they were only selling in packages with 2 other Ligue 1 games. We have to do a French game, & logistically, it's our best bet. Plus I'm a fan of Zlatan. He can play, when he wants to, & I've never seen him in the flesh, so this current PSG team it is.
Before leaving Prestwick (the only place in the UK where Elvis set foot) I had a tweet from someone at UTV asking about our trip & a request to do a radio show. I've been really struggling with Wi-Fi connections, so when I do get some,it's invariably a glut of tweets, e-mails & Facebook requests I have to deal with, (as well as this blog), but this was surprising. I didn't expect this sort of reaction to what we're doing but it's great to get a wee bit more publicity for Oscar's appeal.
While I'm on it, thank you to those of you who have been making very generous donations to our JustGiving page. It's great to see & I'm told that Newcastle fans have been adding to it as well. Again, I can't speak highly enough of the Geordie fans. Thank you all.
We boarded our first Ryanair flight & had a few pics done with the flag. We knew the pressure was on to get tickets & get on top of the organisation of everything onwards. Landing 5 hrs before kick off,in Paris Beauvais,an airport a full 60km outside of Paris, we knew we were up against it tonight. It proved to be more of a challenge than we thought.
It had an ominous vibe from the moment we landed in Paris. Within minutes of stepping off the plane, the clouds gathered & it began pelting it down with rain. When our bus from the airport dropped us into central Paris, the traffic was literally bumper to bumper across all lanes. It was like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie, as if the world had ended while we were flying, with cars practically parked up as far as the eye could see, so our only option was to get the Metro across Paris to our hotel. We checked into our Bates motel-esque digs 2 & a half hours before kick off, dropped our bags off & then went straight back out. Grabbing a few 'Le Big Mac's' on the move, we flagged a taxi to get us to the ground as quickly as possible. He rolled his eyes, told us it was a good hour away at least in this traffic, & would subsequently cost a small fortune on the meter, but we had no other choice really as the metro required too many changes from where we were.
So we jumped in the cab & began chatting to Marwan about tickets (I know how Fellaini spells it, but this lad gave me a card, so it's right) & having had a translation done of the little cards we had for each country, big Maro got the gist of what Google translate was trying to say & started making calls to try & get us some spares. It's a miserable night and we're sat in traffic pretty much knowing the game's sold out & it's about 90 mins to kick off.
By the time we reach the ground, Maro's had no joy, found out that the game's a complete sell-out & advises us to go to a tout, because as he said "no-one will try to rip you off as your dressed like 3 Parisien coppers, with your black jackets. Jamie's definitely got a police look about him"
The cheapest tickets in the ground are €70 face, so we know we're getting stung. The touts are making a killing but we end up getting 3 for a bit over face value & we're set. We discussed the possibility of just 2 of us going in & pooling the money for the tickets, but we stuck with the all for one motto, particularly as Jamie was leaving us in the morning.
So we're in & the place is absolutely empty. We're sat right up in the gods to the left of a goal & just to make things a bit more fun, the entire 3 rows behind us have been bought by Porto fans living in Paris, as we later discovered, & the PSG fans are not happy about it, especially the flags they're flying.
"We were looking for a decent spec for our own flag"
We're looking for a decent spec for our own flag ,when we get a bit of luck- they're taking down some advertising hoardings last minute, I assume at the request of the Champions League & we pounce on it. There's a space for one above the entrance to the concourse, so we get up & hang it down.despite being in the Gods, it must be visible to TV due to the usual advertising board there, so it's a success .
The Oscar flag before it was taken down by the stewards.
A couple of people come down to see what it is & I explain to one English speaking fan, who translates for a few others around us. It's a positive response & we go back to our seats, delighted with our work. The flags there for about 10 mins, as the stadium gets fuller & fuller with the local season ticket holders (all of whom have their name on their seats, which is a nice touch, I thought), when a steward comes up to me, pointing at the flag.
He's gesturing to take it down,so I hand him the card, but he's having none of it. I get up & the crowd around it are booing & shouting. When I get down to the flag, a few are shouting angrily, making all sorts of gestures. The English-speaking French lad tries to argue our case with stewards, but they're just pointing at the crowd, who are getting more & more agressive. As they do so, my translator backs down as if to say "I tried" (which he did, in fairness but there's no reasoning with an angry crowd) & I'm heading back to my seat, dejected. I can only assume they thought it was a rival flag, like Lille or something, because they were so upset.
There was absolutely no other place to hang it, so the game itself was a bit of a downer. Although we got a few pics with the flag before we hung it, it wasn't really a success. Ibrahimovic was beyond awful, the most frustrating footballer I've ever seen, he just couldn't be bothered & the Parisians weren't too impressed.
I thought Menez & Pastore were fantastic, whilst the big names like Zlatan, Thiago Silva & Lavezzi were disappointing,although the latter 2 scored the goals. Porto were a neat & tidy side, but threatened rarely, but I was quite impressed with PSG. Decent side, played some great stuff, & should've won by more.
Not good enough to win the Champions League in my opinion but should cause 1 or 2 problems later on. Should also mention their RB as well! Again, haven't researched his name but if any Evertonians thought Tony Hibbert or Phil Neville were whipping boys, they should've seen this lad. Booed & jeered every time he touched the ball, & he duly obliged by having a shocker!
After the game, we headed for the metro & it did feel like a defeat. We were tired & down & the Metro platform was packed, so I suggested stopping for a biere, before jumping on. 3 50cl Kronenbergs came to a whopping €28.80 & we were done. Paris had beaten us, so we finished up before sloping off into the rain & the trek all across Paris to our hotel. Nearby,we found a little place & had a few (cheaper) Leffe's,which turned out to be 9% stuff, whilst I got to sample a Desperado's red, a new twist on Desperado's with Cacacha & Taurine. We had to have a beer to give Jamie a send-off, as he was travelling home sadly, for a family funeral, & we got to bed around 3, knowing we had to be up at 7 to make our flight to Barcelona.
"Whilst I got to sample a Despardo's Red - a new twist on Desperado's with Cacacha and Taurine"
I would not be sorry to see the back of Paris, but it wasn't finished with us yet.
For anyone who hasn't read this blog before, we are trying to take a flag to 7 football games in 7 days in 7 different countries, to raise awareness, & money, for the Oscar Knox Appeal. Oscar is a young boy from Northern Ireland who has severe Neuroblastoma & desperately needs money to help him, & other children with this terrible disease.
Please read Oscar's Blog here: http://oscarknox.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1
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