Sunday, September 18, 2011

Match Day - France v Canada -La journee des matchs

The day started with full sun and blue skies and it was off to the port in Napier for the traditional breakfast because it was sunday.......any excuse:

On a commence la journee en plein soleil et ciel bleu et nous sommes alles au port de Napier pour la brunch - le petit dejeuner/dejeuner bien aime par les Australiens et les Kiwis les dimanches.  Bacon, saucisse, oeufs, champignons, avocats, tomates etc, et le bon cafe.  Brunch - melange des mots breakfast et lunch.



There seem to be a few photos of the team eating!!
Whilst France is slim she still has the ability to tuck away a good breakfast!

Il y a plein de photos de l'equipe en mangeant!.  Quoique France est svelte, elle peut bien manger!




While there we had the chance to see the Canadian team taking a walk and to meet two of the trainers. It's a small world when one of them turned out to be from South Wales with a good welsh accent to go with it

Pendant que on mangeait, on a vu l'equipe Canadienne qui marchait, et nous avons recontre 2 des entraineurs.  C'est un petit monde quand un des d'eux etait un gallois avec une bonne accent galloise aussi!

Napier is the art deco city of New Zealand with building from the 1930s built after the 1931 earthquake which devastated the city. Ongoing construction has been very controlled so that the city as a whole has retained the art deco flavour........resulting is something very unique as illustrated by the theatre below:

Napier est la ville d'art deco de NZ, avec tous les batiments construits apres un tremblement de terre enorme en 1931 qui a detruit la ville, ont ete dans led style des annees 1930 - c'est une ville tres unique - comme le theatre en dessous:




Napier was in full swing with the town packed with supporters for the two teams with everyone enjoying the fine weather

Napier etait plein de supporteurs de toutes les equipes dans le Coupe de Monde, c'etait geniale!


















With plenty of entertainment for the visitors such as Moari singers, a bagpipe band and steam engine rides

Beaucoup d'animations pour les visiteurs, les chanteurs Maori, les trajets avec les engins au vapeur etc....





Of particular interest was an exhibition of sheep shearing done by a shearer that travels around the sheep farms earning $1.5 per sheep sheared. Time taken to shear a sheep was less than one minute with the maximum sheared in a day 366 sheep

On a vu les bergers qui tondent les moutons.  Ils voyagent partout en Australie et NZ pour tondre les mouton, et c'est paye a $1.5 par mouton tondu.   Moins d'une minute pour tondre un mouton - le maximum fait pendant une journee est 366 moutons.

Napier is particularly attractive because of its gardens and even though it was early spring many flowers were in bloom

Napier est tres attractive en printemps - oui, c'est le printemps ici, voyez les fleurs en dessous:




Whilst the France v Canada match was in the evening there was another match we had to see which was Wales v Samoa in the afternoon. We settled in the ''Station'' pub for some relaxation before the match

Quoique le match France contre Canada etait pendant la soiree, il y avait un autre match qu'il fallait regarder, bien sur, Pays de Galles contrre Samoa.  Nous nous sommes installes dans un pub, le Station, avant le match.




The match was a little tense requiring some quantity of beer to calm the nerves but Wales eventually came out on top beating Samoa by a somewhat narrow margin

Then it was off for the main event of the day only to have the heavens open with a deluge of rain. Unfortunately we were in the open on a grass bank so ended up very wet but still in high spirits!

Le match etait un peu stressant, et nous etions obliges de boire les bieres en quantite de se calmer, mais enfin, les Gallois ont gagne!!

Puis on a marche au stade pour le match le plus important de la jourrnee,  France contre Canada.  Malheureusement, il a plu et plu en pagaille, et en plus,  nous n'etions pas dans les tribunes, nous etions en plein pluie derriere les poteaux.  On n'a pas vu beaucoup du match parce que les lunettes etaient trempes, mais on s'est regale, comme meme!





and the banner was on the television! Fortunately France won the match playing particularly well in the second half.........home then to hot soup and toast and a chance to see the match on television. A very different match than the one we saw from the bank! What crazy weather there is in New Zealand given that at Napier we had torrential rain but in Hastings, only 15 Kms away, there was nothing during the evening

et le banderole etait sur la television - vite vue!  Heureusement la France a gagne, et puis nous sommes rentres chez Kate pour les douches, le potage chaud et la chance de regarder a nouveau le match a la television - c'etait un match completement different!  Le temps ici est bizarre, parce que a Napier il a plu enormement, mais a Hastings, 15kms distance, pas de pluie de tout!