Smart Cars, Rugby, and Food

Top - Outside the State Velodrome in Marseilles; bottom - don't know what this globe thingy is, but it does make a nice background for a picture














Gotta love The Wave! Allez les Bleus!






This past weekend we went to see France play Argentina in rugby, rented a Smart car, and bought a bunch of food.

The company Kari works for has a department called the CE (Comite d'Enterprise), and its purpose is to organize extracurricular events and discounts for the employees. Most large (and some smaller to mid-size) companies in France have them. During the summer we went on a WaveRunner excursion to Nice that they put on. This past weekend they had tickets to the rugby game in Marseilles, the cost of which included the rental of a tour bus to take us there and back.

The game was at 9pm on Saturday November 8th. We had to be at Kari's work in Sophia Antipolis at 4pm to catch the bus. It arrived in Marseilles at 7pm, which gave us time to walk to the stadium and get something to eat and drink from the vendors. Not exactly haute cuisine, but not the worst meal we have ever had. Outside the stadium there were no toilets or garbage bins. Yes, I know, terrorist concerns, but come on, what about sanitation concerns?

I am not going to talk about the toilet facilities inside the stadium, because I just want to forget; all I will say is that the Stade Velodrome Marseilles makes Candlestick shine. Another example of the grass not always being greener.







The game itself was boring, France winning 12-6, all kicks, a couple of good runs that went nowhere and a few good hits (bon frappe). The fans were cool; they did the wave a lot (which I do enjoy) and they would start spontaneously singing La Marseillaise (the French national anthem) and chanting "Allez Les Bleus".

We both enjoy watching rugby, but we don't understand it. Like cricket, it looks like a made-up game. It can be pretty exciting and like football (soccer), there are no effing TV timeouts during the game. Two 40-minute halves, a 20-minute halftime and its over. What I think would be a really cool sport is that if you took rugby and added blocking (it is illegal in rugby) and the forward pass (also illegal). It would be a pretty interesting sport.




Hey, it's not the size, it's what you do with it!







Because we had to catch the bus to get to the game and then it being late when it returned us to Sophia Antipolis, we rented a Smart car for the weekend. If you haven't heard about these, they have been sold in Europe at least since 2001 when we first went to Europe. They are small cars, as you can see in the picture. There is a very small trunk (you could probably get 4 grocery bags in there), and minimal room behind the seat.

It goes up hills pretty well with two people, and once you are moving it seems to accelerate pretty well. But when it starts from a dead stop there is a delay before the car moves. It also has a weird combination automatic/manual transmission; not a proper clutch, but you push the stick forward to change gears. It downshifts automatically when you start to slow down, but it will not upshift (unless perhaps you start to redline; but the whine is so annoying, you have to shift before then). The suspension is not the greatest. Perhaps it is because the frame is so small, but you feel every bump in the road (which rules out driving one in Pacifica).

It does feel to be a bit top-heavy going around turns, but you can do some pretty sharp turns in it, and your options for parking spaces increase tremendously. Kari and I agreed that it may not be very comfortable on a long trip, but it would be a great car if you lived in city, especially a big city, in which you had to do some driving.

On Sunday we went to the 17th edition du Palais Gourmand (food fair thing) at the Hippodrome in Cagnes-sur-Mer. The Hippodrome is the horse-cart racing thingy track. There were over 200 booths of food merchants: wine (lots of wine), beer, food, pastries, all kinds of stuff. Sort of like an Art and Wine festival without the Art but way more food and drink. Fortunately my good lady knows me well enough to insist we bring some money, because we spent it all. And best of all, one of the vendors sold Belgian beer and it turns out, he has a shop in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Most excellent.