Nantes and Second Match

 After a sleepy bus ride we finally arrived in Nantes and our driver, Stefan, pulled over on a busy street. We waited and waited as trams, busses and cars buzzed by. There were pedestrian streets on either side of us. After a long wait, Maria announced that Stefan could not get his code to work to lower the bollards and let us into the street. We would need to walk our luggage across the tram tracks and busy street and over the cobblestones to our hotel. She described that the hotel was just 100 meters away straight down the pedestrian street. Panic for Sue as she worried about Nick navigating the monster suitcase. She offered that if Nick wanted to leave it on the bus, he could wear her clothes. Nick declined. Stefan turned the bus so at least we were not unloading in traffic. One of the women on the tour was unloading all the heavy cases but she stopped at Nick’s and he grabbed it. Julie had her case, carryon and the leftover wine and beer from Rochefort. There was actually a big lull in traffic, and we were able to traverse the street without issue. But then we couldn’t find the hotel. Nick ended up putting the address in his GPS to find it. It was around two corners from the pedestrian street. And it appeared to be on an open street with traffic that the bus could have used. We went to the lobby and found Sara but she only had about 3/4 of the keys. She handed those out and one by one the hotel staff produced more until only the four of us were left. Then Sara spoke animatedly to the staff, and we could discern that they had once again put Nick with Mary and Sue with Julie. It took ages for them to reconfigure but finally we had our rooms. However, Mary and Julie’s was not made up as twins and it took more time for them to organize that. We believe Rugby Travel Ireland has reserved all these rooms incorrectly and is trying to fix it on the fly in each city. It is rather disappointing since we booked so long ago. At least Mary and Julie were offered a free drink for the inconvenience.

We met in the bar while Mary and Julie’s room was made up. They served a nice local white wine. Lorraine and Peter from our tour group joined us, and we had a very nice chat. Mary decided to skip dinner but Sue, Nick, Julie, Lorraine and Peter ventured out to a restaurant recommended by the hotel. That was full but we got a table at a restaurant nearby that had the New Zealand - Namibia game on the tv. We got to see the haka and a little of the match - it was a blowout for the All Blacks. The service was incredibly slow but eventually a young man came with plastic chips with QR codes to see the menus. We had a Camembert appetizer to share, Nick and Julie had Caprese salads, Sue had a tuna appetizer and Lorraine and Peter had fish and chips. The food was excellent. Sue and Peter split the bill and it was surprisingly reasonable- possibly an error but we were not shown the ticket so no way to know. We really enjoyed our conversation and went back to the hotel using Nick’s handy GPS. Tomorrow is our match against Tonga. 

We attended the very busy breakfast with another cantankerous coffee machine and then headed out in Nantes. It was cloudy but warm and started sprinkling at one point. We went to the Jules Verne inspired Les Machines de I’lle, about a 20-minute walk from the hotel. (Jules Verne was born in Nantes, and Leonardo da Vinci lived here for a time.) The route was not very scenic, Nantes seems maybe a bit more industrial than our previous towns. We walked through a market selling everything from fish to prepared Thai food to wigs and frilly dresses. 

We arrived at Les Machines de I’lle to see a very long line snaking to the entrance. We stood in line at least 45 minutes, questioning our judgment every 15 minutes or so as the line moved so slowly. At one point they announced that most of the elephant rides were full. Since we didn’t especially want to ride the elephant, we didn’t much care but we still couldn’t understand what was taking so long. It started raining much harder but we were under cover, so there was that. If we had left, we would have gotten soaked. Finally we got to the front, got our tickets and were admitted. Inside was a large crowd around a giant spider. Two people from near us in line were on the spider, working controls. The spider lifted up and its legs moved and at one point squirted water. All the time a staff member talked in French over a microphone. I had no idea what they were saying. Soon enough the spider demo was over and they moved on to another animal that a volunteer got to operate. Then they moved to the sloth. Julie and Sue were sitting at a bench looking on when a staff member came and asked if we wanted to ride an ant. Sure we said. Some younger folks climbed up first, then they helped us up about 5 steps into metal seats, and we put on seatbelts. We moved levers to make the ant’s back legs move. It was hard work. The ant walked slowly into the room where the crowd had just finished watching the sloth. We rode around the crowd, quite close to some of the people and did our best to keep pushing and pulling the levers. The ride ended; the crowd applauded; and we gingerly climbed down. We then saw a mechanical hummingbird, an airplane, a caterpillar and a very cool heron that flew across the room flapping its wings. We did not have time to see the giant elephant walking but we saw it standing and took its photo. It was huge and really impressively decorated. Apparently 50 people at once can ride it. 

We headed in the direction of the hotel for lunch and found a square with a beautiful fountain. We had lunch at the Royale cafe, and the canvas roof near us kept draining water, barely missing us. Lunch was huge salads, ribs for Nick, and cheese for Mary. We walked to and inside St. Nicholas Basilica which had flying buttresses and beautiful stained glass windows. 

At 3:45, we met in the hotel for our pre-match dinner. We walked as a group to La Cigale, a beautiful but crowded restaurant. We were among the last to arrive and found it difficult to squeeze into the seats. Sue tried one seat and couldn’t sit down so Julie and Mary moved and let her squeeze down to the end of the table where there was more room. But that was right next to the window in the sun. Sue and Nick decided to leave and find another restaurant and were squeezing back out when Sara stopped them and arranged for them to sit in a booth with Maria, Donal’s wife Mary, and Helen and David. It was more roomy but still very hot. Sue remarked it seemed we were playing in Tonga. Meanwhile Julie and Mary were left at the crowded table in the sun. Finally a waiter came and removed a window pane near them which at least provided some air. The food was a salmon tartare (Sue and Nick liked, but Mary didn’t), roast chicken with pea purée and crème brûlée for dessert. There were interesting wines provided. As we were finishing up, someone came to Helen and David and said they were taking an Uber so as to avoid the tram. Helen asked if we could order the Uber. We checked and there were no rides for 6 people so Julie ordered one Uber and Sue ordered another. They took over 30 minutes to arrive and there was some stress when one of them did not come to the designated pickup point. But in the end it was a good call, as we got comfortably to the stadium, and Sue’s driver pointed out lots of landmarks and interesting things we had missed in Nantes. 

We got to the stadium grounds and found Julie. Helen and David had gone off to do their thing. We had a beer on the grounds, where a New Orleans style band was playing. The atmosphere was festive. We went to enter the stadium and they separated the women and men for pat downs. It took forever in the women’s line and it was very hot. We made it to the outer gate and scanned our tickets. Then we walked around the outside of the entire stadium before we found our gate. We were up some very steep stairs in Row N. The seats were good but Sue never left the entire game so as not to have to navigate the steps. We were seated with our tour group. We had an hour to kill before the game started. Again the pre-game banter was lame. At times the crowd would break into an unintelligible song which was mildly interesting. It was 9 pm and it was still hot and humid. The stadium was mostly covered which seemed to intensify the heat. The woman next to Mary spilled a large beer and it got on her shoes. Finally the teams warmed up, and the National Anthems were played. At least one Tonga player cried with the emotion. Then the Tonga team did a haka. It was a highlight seeing that live. The game itself was somewhat sloppy with lots of penalties (which not all of us understand.) Several tries were scored but then overturned after review. (Again, they don’t explain why - just take the points off the board.) Ireland led at half-time but it didn’t feel as dominant as the Romania game. The final score was 59 - 16. 

We left with 10 minutes to go to hopefully get a seat on the tram. The first one was full so we waited for the next. Three of us got seats, but Nick had to stand. The car was packed and hot. The crowd sang as the car ambled along. Some songs we didn’t recognize but we joined in on Take Me Home Country Roads and amazingly the crowd knew every word of Bohemian Rhapsody. After 30 minutes we got to our station and after a bit of trying found the hotel. We polished off the wine and beer we had bought in Rochefort and said goodnight after a long eventful day.