First thing after breakfast (which isn't very early) I ride along to the rugby ground to see of I can find out what time the tournament starts. I ask and from the answers I get in French I think its 17:00 and there was something about an English player. I thought it would be earlier but it gives us the afternoon free to go for a walk.
Back at the site, I notice the lady from the night before, she is with her husband and they have the caravan hooked up ready to go. Unbelievably she is driving, she must have just been very, very drunk last night and he must have been unconscious, embarrassingly they are British. What is more unbelievable is that she has the map out and is plotting the route, she couldn't find her way across a field last night. I wonder if they have been driving about France aimlessly for years trying to get home.
About 16:00 we make our way along to the ground, on the way drivers of passing cars are waving to us, and a passing scooter pips his horn and shouts something. When we get in the ground, I notice that the Auxerre rugby shirt is very similar the the 2001 Lions shirt I am wearing, so I assume the waving and piping, was because they thought I was a fellow Auxerre supporter and you know what, I am.
We take a seat in the small stand opposite the main stand, three young lads come over to us and try to sell us what look like small envelopes. "Do any of you speak any English" I ask, this causes some panic between them, until as usual one says "a little". "What are they" I ask, they can't explain (or at least can't make me understand), but the envelopes and tickets in them, seem to have something to do with a kiosk next to the main stand. we buy some anyway.
Part way through the first game we walk over to the main stand and discover that the envelopes are a sort of tombola, with small prizes, like packs of playing cards. When people find out we are English we are treated like old friends, although trying to get me to eat snails makes me wonder. During Auxerre's first game, one of their players is brought over and introduced to us, he is English but has a French mother and has lived in Auxerre most of his life, although he does have a Yorkshire accent. He has just been brought off for a rest but before long he is back on the pitch playing and Auxerre win.
It turned out to be a long day before the final, but there was a BBQ going for food and there is plenty of beer. In the end Auxerre win the tournament, as far as I can work out this is the only time that they have won, we must be good luck. I am a bit wobbly on the way back but it's too not far.
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