In between games we made a plan to go to stop points visit a couple of cities to see a bit more of France whilst we’re there.
So our second stop off was Montpellier on the south coast. A mere 90 minutes train ride from Marseille. How much did it cost us? Seven of your English sterling pounds. £7! Can you image a 90 minutes train journey anywhere in UK for £7? Ridiculously cheap.
But whilst at the station in Marseille, we made our first ‘flag picture’. We got a flag made as a favour for free and the plan was that we would get a group photo in every city we went to with us holding it.
You may be asking about the “Alright Pal?” reference, and to be honest I’m not the best person to ask. However, it made a few people laugh and it caught the eye of a nearby television camera crew. After a small while waiting for our train, the journalist and his camera crew came over and asked us for an interview. He was from Channel Five and asked us all a few questions, which delighted me, Nick was okay with it, but for the others maybe wasn’t their cup of tea.
The journalist asked if the “Alright Pal” reference was a social media fad, to which we denied (maybe with a hope it may become one after the interview). It was fun but I felt as though he tried to trip us up to say some controversial about Marseille and the game. Perhaps to say “it was horrible, we saw some horrific things”. We said we didn’t see anything, we had a great time, but looking forward to elsewhere. Albeit we were not overly enthusiastic about Marseille, it certainly was a great experience.
Anyway onto Montpellier we arrived early afternoon, checked into our hotel and went for a walk around. On arrival at our hotel for the night, the manager was very helpful supplying us a map, the WIFI code and a couple of bottles of free water, which was a nice gesture.
We went for food at an Italian restaurant nearby (Italian cuisine was a common thing in the first few days of the journey), then went to a few bars in the centre.
It was great, I loved my 24 hours in Montpellier. No football fans, very clean city, great scenes, and very hot weather to compliment it. If anything I felt as though the rest of the journey would be hard to compete, despite the fact we still had to go to Paris, Lille, Lens, Dijon, Lyon and St Etienne in the group phases.
We ended up settling in a bar where we had some dinner and settled to watch two games of football. First we saw Poland beat Northern Ireland and The Germans ease past Ukraine. I was advised by a family member that if you stayed in a bar long enough, eventually they will give you free drinks. Which this little bar did, much to our delight.
Once the football was over we went to another small bar in a side-street where there was music playing. It wasn’t long until the locals played some popular English music because of our attendance, including “Free From Desire” – to which the Will Griggs’ version got sung. They even played some French pop music too which the locals sang and drank.
The side-street bar was nice, it wasn’t that busy and we had a say in the playlist. Up steps Trigg, who I think has a great taste in music. He strides up to the laptop which was playing the music and says “I’m going to put some Gary Rafferty”. Whose Gary Rafferty you ask? I think he meant Gerry. Throws on some Baker Street.
What a tune! However, is it suitable for a night out with some Montpellier locals who want a dance? No! The bar went dead for the duration. People walked outside or went straight to the bar. Not his smartest move.
The day drew to a close, on the empty streets of Montpellier. The rest of the guys pretended they were wrestlers. Despite being 25, there is always a child deep inside your soul. Wrestling wasn’t for me however. What’s a ‘Stone cold stunner’ anyway?
