Match 27 -- New Zealand v. South Africa

Saturday, 28 October 2023

My 27th match, and the 48th one of the tournament, was the final between New Zealand and South Africa in Paris.

I had walked to the Saint Denis Basilica prior to the match -- details to follow in the eventual post for Day 52 -- so I walked from there to the stadium around 5:30 p.m. to meet Justin and his family again at one of the bars near the grounds. I found them at a table not far from where we were last night and we hung out there until it was time to enter the stadium. It wasn't quite as loud as last night's location, so I was able to have more conversations. I realize now who Ashley's voice reminds me of -- Nigel Owens, the great Welsh rugby referee.

I went in and found my seat at about 7:45. In addition to the usual pre-match activities, this time they had a musical act perform, in the corner of the stadium, for about ten minutes before the teams took the field. It's interesting to me how that differs from the Super Bowl using halftime for this, and doing it on the field. That makes the Super Bowl halftime stretch to thirty minutes or more. Whereas rugby protects the integrity of the players and the game and does the promotional stuff only before and after, not during.

Another good seat. Up high in the south end. High enough that even with the wind, it is out of the rain. The seat to my left was empty, and a railing and walkway were right in front of me, so I wasn't packed in too tightly.

Continual rain

The view from my seat

Pre-match selfie

The national anthems

The haka. Again, my camera seems to have blurred it in an oil-painting style

These are two of the perennial best teams in the world over the last twenty years, so everyone knew we were likely to be in for a great match.

The first half featured both a yellow card and a red card for New Zealand, so South Africa had a man advantage for twenty of the forty minutes. It was a lot of kicking back and forth, hoping the other team would make a mistake. South Africa kicked a penalty in the third minute to go up 3-0, and some more penalty kicks got us to a halftime score of 12-6 in favor of South Africa. 

New Zealand kept up some pressure in the second half. They appeared to have scored a try early in the half, but it was called back upon review because of a forward pass. They did, however, score a try a few minutes later. (Some would say that one should have also been called back upon review.) But they missed the conversion that would have put them ahead. 12-11 for South Africa after 59 minutes. 

South Africa's Cheslin Kolbe was sent off with a yellow card in the 73rd minute for an intentional knock-on. Even from the 69th row I could see how anguished he was at the thought of leaving his team at 14 players for the remainder of the match. New Zealand missed the penalty kick that they were awarded for the intentional knock-on. That's two missed kicks in a row -- either of them would have given them the lead.

The last seven minutes was intensely fought. New Zealand trying to get into position to score, and South Africa trying to hold them away. The final whistle blew, and South Africa had prevailed, 12-11. The fact that it was close the whole time, and within six points for all but four minutes of the match, was wonderful. The atmosphere in the stadium was awesome. I had a batch of RSA folks behind me, and a row of NZL dudes in front of me, and they were good-naturedly ribbing each other the whole time. (Contrast that with any match involving England. The England fans are more obnoxious.)

South Africa fans celebrating? Or New Zealand fans who lost a bet?

South Africa won their last three games each by a single point. It doesn't really get any closer than that.

Part of me wanted to stay and watch the awards ceremony. And part of me wanted to head right back to the hotel because I'll have to get up at 5:30 in the morning. I decided to stay, and I'm glad I did. While it was hard to watch the New Zealand players getting their silver medals, the joy of the South Africa team and fans was quite something to behold.

Then I turned in ten of the eleven cups I had gathered. (They only allow ten at a time, so I kept one as a souvenir.) Followed by a walk back to the hotel in the rain. When I got to the hotel, a guy about my age and his three daughters walked in right behind me. We all shared the elevator. He asked me if I had just been to the rugby match. Yep. They had, too. When I told them it was the last of my 27 matches, the father said he was impressed, and asked one of his daughters to unzip her jacket. I was trying to figure out the right way to say "Dude, I don't know where you're going with this, but it doesn't feel right" when he showed me that the jersey she was wearing was one that he had from the first Rugby World Cup in 1987. "I was at that first World Cup", he said. Very cool. We didn't have a chance to talk much more because had arrived at my floor. As I stepped out of the elevator, he said "Well done you." It took a moment for me to process his accent and then parse it into a sensible sentence, but I smiled and thanked him once I had.

...doug

Match 26 -- Argentina v. England

Friday, 27 October 2023

My 26th match, and the 47th of the tournament, was the Argentina v. England bronze-medal match in Paris.

I saw some good reviews of Maison Burger just south of the stadium so I headed there before the match. They weren't open. 🙁 I'll have to figure out the right way to update Google Maps. I can't just update the hours because they didn't have hours posted on the door. But I don't want to give them either one or five stars and write a review consisting of "They weren't open". I don't see a way to tag the entry for attention. I'll keep trying.

So I walked a block back north to a place I had seen on the way to Maison Burger -- Wilson's Grill. I'm glad I did. I had a chicken tandoori sandwich. Kinda like a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. A hoagie-like roll, but French, filled with tandoori chicken and cheese and crudités. It was really good.

The chicken tandoori sandwich at Wilson's grill

When I set down my stack of about 44 cups while placing my order, the cook asked me where I got them. I told him they were from the rugby matches and that I was taking them in for a refund. I asked him if he wanted one, and his eyes lit up. I gave him one and he was very thankful. 

I had made plans to meet up with Justin and his family near the stadium. We were aiming for "one of the bars near the KFC on the east side". I got to the KFC and texted Justin asking where they had ended up. A few minutes later, he came around the corner to find me. It turns out they were only about 25 meters from where I had been huddling under the KFC entrance's awning. They had an outside table under a tent, and I joined them.

Left to right: Ashley (Justin's brother), Justin (Justin), Lisa (Justin's wife), Hywel (Catherine's partner), Catherine (Justin's niece), Ann (Ashley's wife), Doug (me)

(No, I didn't remember all their names. Between how loud it was, and my less-than-youthful hearing, and the fact that they all had New Zealand and/or Welsh accents, I could only remember Justin and Lisa by the time I got home. I had to ask Justin about their names as I was writing this up.) 

We compared notes about returning cups for refunds -- Justin has become something of an expert -- and pooled all of our cups. Apparently they are still enforcing the ten-per-person rule, but we heard that some of the beer stands outside the stadium were taking them. Hywel and I each took ten and headed to the nearest beer stand. They said they weren't refunding them until after the match. So we went to the next beer stand. They guy there was a little bit more understanding. He wouldn't cash them in, but he'd give us a beer (a ten-euro value) for each stack of ten cups. We took him up on the offer. Hywel got a "free" beer out of the deal, and I took mine to the table for whomever wanted it. It did not go to waste.

It was then time to head into the stadium. Justin volunteered me to be the mule. We put all the remaining cups -- 40-ish -- in his backpack and I took it in. Well, I tried to. At the security checkpoint just after scanning my ticket the guy doing the frisking checked the backpack. Our language skills didn't align, but he said I could only take in five cups and I'd have to dump the rest in a nearby trash or recycling bin. I protested (lightly) and asked when that policy changed. He took me a few feet away to a supervisor-seeming guy. I thought maybe he was taking me to him for better English, but that was not the case. The supervisor also said "only five". I protested again (still lightly, because I figured they could get tired of me and kick me out, and because my ticket had already been scanned, I probably couldn't get back in) but we couldn't see eye to eye. I said "Five per person? So I can give five each to these other people in the line." And I started giving five each to people. The first person took them and smiled. The second person opened his jacket and showed me that he already had five. As I was giving five cups to the third person, the security supervisor dude said "give me that" and reached for the backpack. He took out all but five and held them. He gave me the backpack with five cups remaining in it and said "You can go in now". Yeah, I'm now 99% certain it wasn't a policy. It was just a way for the security dudes to get some free money.

After I got inside I met up with Justin (he and his group had to go in via a different gate) and explained the situation, apologized, and gave him his backpack. The first beer stand I tried to turn the remaining five cups in to said they weren't taking them until after 10:30 p.m. Justin said some of the ones on the highest concourse were more flexible, so I went up there. Yep, they took them.

After all that, I found my seat. It was a good one. The only negative was that it was the farthest seat in along that row, so I had to slide past about 20 people to get to it.

The view from my seat

Pre-game selfie

The national anthems (and yes, I sang "My Country 'tis of Thee" during "God Save the King")

It's hard to tell from this distance, but Argentina (in blue) are wearing their "beauty pageant sash" uniforms today

Halftime selfie

England beat Argentina handily back in the first round of pool play, and most people expected a similar result this time. England got out to an early lead and were up 13-0 by the thirteenth minute. Argentina closed it to within six points by halftime, 16-10.

There was a break part way through the first half when Argentina's flanker, Marcos Kremer, had to be attended to for some blood coming from a cut above his ear. While the medics got him cleaned up and bandaged, the public address folks played some sporting anthems to keep the crowd excited. The first one -- "We Will Rock You" by Queen. Just a snippet, but enough to get to the "You've got blood on your face" line. I hope it was intentional. 🙂

Argentina came out strong in the second half, even taking the lead, 17-16, after an Santiago Carreras try in the 42nd minute. England roared back just one minute later when hooker Theo Dan charged down a kick and scooped it up and ran it in for a try. A penalty kick for Argentina a few minutes later got them back to within three points, at 23-20. Argentina had several promising opportunities through the rest of the match, but England held firm, tacking on a penalty kick in the 65th minute to get to what would become the final score, 26-23. All in all, another fantastic match. 

The Argentina fans definitely outnumbered the English supporters. But the English fans persisted on singing the one song they know.

🎵 Swing low, sweet chariot

Coming for to carry me home

Swing low, sweet chariot

Coming for to carry me home 🎵

I just wish they knew more than that one verse. 

After the match I picked up five more cups and turned them in. Then I found one more while I was looking to meet up with Justin's group near the player tunnel to see about getting autographs or "souvenirs". (I'm not sure that I'd want to take a dirty sock home in a carry-on bag.) I didn't end up finding them, so I headed out, looking for a cup return booth on the way. I never did find one, but as I was deciding to give up I saw a kid, about ten or twelve years old, with six or eight cups walking with his dad. So I snatched all of his cups to make it more worthwhile for me to find a refund booth. So I added my cup to his stack and wished him luck.

...doug

Day 44 -- Paris

Friday, 20 October 2023

I did laundry in the shower and hung it up to dry. Then I walked all around Saint Ouen again. Mostly the south part.

All that time I was trying to see when I could see the Eiffel Tower while walking toward it, I didn't realize that I could see it from the hotel. From a hallway window on the top floor.

View from the hotel. Eiffel Tower at the far left

View from the hotel. The Montmartre Basilica in the distance

I didn't get a photo, but I had chicken tikka masala for lunch at Palais Indien. Well, that's what it appears as on Google Maps, but the sign on the building is "Délice de l'Inde". I was aiming for Palais Indien based on great reviews, and I walked around for a bit thinking maybe there were two different restaurants close together. I finally figured out it must be the same place based on a photo of the Délice de l'Inde sign in the reviews of Palais Indien. Whatever the name, the food was great.

The Argentina v. New Zealand semifinal match was in the evening.

I completed 43 more streets today. One was in Saint Denis, fourteen were just over the border in Paris itself, and 28 were in Saint Ouen.

Day 43 -- Paris

Thursday, 19 October 2023

More rain today, so I just walked around Saint Ouen. 

France really likes their spiral stairs. In addition to the fire exit stairs in Saint Etienne, and the internal stairwells in quite a few of the hotels, they even use them for construction scaffolding.

Spiral scaffolding

Along the Seine back toward the tall buildings of the La Défense area

Dinner was a soufflée calzone at C Pizza. I'm not sure what makes it a soufflée. But it was wonderful. The guy was really nice, and appreciated my attempts at French.

Soufflée calzone at C Pizza

Seventeen more streets completed in Saint Ouen.

...doug

Day 42 -- Paris

Wednesday, 18 October 2023

Well, I'm in Paris. So I should do Paris things.

I walked the five miles to the Eiffel Tower. When Google told me to turn onto Rue Legendre, it pronounced it as leg-end-ray. But I knew the right pronunciation, thanks to some great high school math teachers.

A view down Rue Legendre on the way to the Eiffel Tower

My first sighting of the Arc de Triomphe

My first sighting of the Eiffel Tower

Given how tall it is, I figured I'd see the Eiffel Tower over the tops of buildings well before I got there. But I hadn't counted on how narrow the streets were. There's not a lot of clear line of sight to anything beyond the buildings on either side. It wasn't until the buildings opened up on the edge of the Seine that I saw the tower.

Barge traffic on the Seine

I didn't have a ticket for the Eiffel Tower, so I had to wait in the "longer" line to get through security. It still only took about five minutes. I had figured that a weekday in late October wouldn't be too crowded, so I took my chances with just buying a ticket at the tower. It turned out well, because there were only about five people in line ahead of me. I bought a ticket to take the stairs to the first two levels, and then the elevator from there to the top. (They don't have an option to take the stairs all the way to the top.)

The beginning of the stairs

The Champ de Mars from the first level

The Seine from the first level

Looking back to the ground

The Trocadero Gardens and the skyscrapers of the La Défense district in the background 

Looking back down to where I started

I stopped on the first level to take some photos and to read some displays. They had a little café, so I figured eating a croque monsieur part way up the Eiffel Tower seemed like the right thing do to. (It was not the best croque monsieur I've had.) I then continued on the stairs to the second level.

The croque monsieur in question

The Seine from the second level

The Arc de Triomphe from the second level. Accidental impressionism?

There was about a ten-minute wait for the elevator to the top. From the ground to the first and second levels, the elevator is on a slanted track. But from here on up, it's a vertical shaft. It was rainy and windy at the top, so I didn't get many photos.

Eiffel selfie (almost an anagram)

The "top" that guests can get to isn't quite at the top. This is a view up through the antenna equipment and other stuff that is above the observation platform

Then it was back down the elevator to the second level, and the stairs back to the ground. 

A view up through the center

Looking back while walking away

Cut off the top

Cut off myself

Looking back from halfway down the Champ de Mars

 Before today, I would have said the Eiffel Tower was black. It's a yellowish-brown now, but it's been about a dozen different colors through the years

Then I headed to the Arc de Triomphe because it is pretty close. And the rain picked up. 

Hard to get a good shot in the rain

The Arc de Triomphe

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the base of the Arc de Triomphe

I was going to keep walking and see the Louvre (just the outside) and Notre Dame Cathedral while I was in the area before heading back to the hotel. But the rain made the sidewalks very slippery. It wasn't the wet leaves. It's that the sidewalks are made of smooth stone. Anywhere I could find concrete or asphalt was fine, but most of that part of Paris uses stone. I slipped for the fourth time just after leaving the Arc de Triomphe -- and two of those ended up with me on the ground -- so I bailed out on the idea of more walking. I found the nearest subway station and took the subway to near the hotel for dinner at Big Fernand.

I wonder if the put their website address on their trays in response to all the food photos on social media

Then I walked back to the hotel -- the area around Saint Ouen is mostly concrete and asphalt, not so much stone, so I had no slipping problems -- and wrapped up the day. (Oh, I completed 13 more streets in Saint Ouen today. And a handful in Paris, but Paris has 5600+ streets so I won't be completing Paris any time soon.)

...doug

Day 41 -- Paris

Tuesday, 17 October 2023

I didn't do very much today. No rugby match and no traveling, so I just took things easy. I walked to Napolitano for pizza for a late lunch. I was the only one there (it was about 2:30 p.m.) and the owner was quite friendly.

The Carnivore pizza at Napolitano

After lunch I walked around Saint Ouen for a while.

A barge on the Seine

The Seine, and Pont de Gennevilliers

Returning to the hotel, I found that there are only 246 streets in Saint Ouen. And I've already finished eight of them. I'll be here for twelve days. Twenty-ish streets a day -- can I do it? Yeah, let's go for it. Let's see if I can complete 100% of the streets in Saint Ouen. So I went back out in the evening for some more walking. By the end of the day I had completed 25 streets. That's on track to get them all. 

...doug

Day 40 -- Marseille to Paris

Monday, 16 October 2023

Check-out time was 10:00 a.m., but my train to Paris didn't leave until 2:00 p.m. I walked to the Metro station and took the subway to the train station. Looked around at nearby restaurants and picked a burger place just a bit down the street.

A burger from Butcher's

Walked back to the train station and still had over an hour before my train. Once it arrived, it was a pretty quick ride to Paris -- not many stops. Once in Paris I needed to buy a ticket for the Metro. There was a huge slug of people looking to buy Metro tickets at the station, and a handful of the kiosks were out of order. I stood in line for a total of fifty minutes at eight kiosks before I was finally able to buy a ticket. Took the Metro 14 line to the stop nearest my hotel. To be close to the stadium, I picked a hotel in the suburb of Saint Ouen. (I guess it's officially called Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine now.) It's the next suburb over from Saint Denis, which is where the stadium is. A twelve-minute walk from the Metro station to the hotel and a smooth check-in process wrapped up the day.

...doug
 

Day 39 -- Marseille

Sunday, 15 October 2023

I headed to the Irish pub aiming to get there at about noon-fifteen, figuring that's when the kitchen would be open.(Fool me seventeen times ...) And I was told the kitchen would open at 1:00. So I walked around a bit and came back at 1:10. "The kitchen will open really soon." I can't decide if that is very French of them or very Irish of them.

I sat at the bar and waited. They were really nice. The kitchen opened at about 1:20. I had a Guinness burger. I forgot to get a photo. But I did get a photo of the trap door stairway behind the bar.

Behind the bar at O'Brady's Irish Pub

After lunch I went back to the hotel and did some laundry. The signs in the laundry room said you could buy detergent at the front desk, but the guy just gave me some free. After laundry was done, it was time for the England v. Fiji match. After the match I was still hungry, so I stopped at Pizza la Marseillaise on the way back to the hotel. It's a tiny little place, and quite busy with post-match traffic.

Room for about one customer inside the door. Everyone else waits outside

Tartiflette pizza

Walking the rest of the way back to the hotel wrapped up the day.

...doug