Roanne

Heather, Kirsty, Vicki, and I headed to Roanne on Sunday to visit the "rugby boys" or the English assistants in Roanne who have dedicated their time to playing on their town's team making them local celebrities but having only Mondays off. We didn't expect it to take an hour to get there but there are a million village stops in the countryside, and we also expected to end up in some stone castle village like the brochures. The town was still pretty since its on the Loire river, but it would be really easy to get bored living there when you can walk through then town in under an hour. The buys play cards and rugby and that's about it they said. Being that it was Sunday there was nowhere open but we settled on this nice restaurant called la Taverne Alsacienne where I tried snails for the first time (on tagliatelle pasta) and the restaurant was so cozy even the bathroom was decorated in a Gaudi style with "cygnes" from Alsace. After I saw my first rugby match, amazed when men were hoisted in the air like weightless cheerleaders to catch the ball throw-in. I still prefer football (amer) because they spend too much time huddling together instead of moving with the ball and they often kick it then run after it, but it was interesting to see. Actually the Colts/Patriots game was on France2 that night and I was having culture shock just watching an American game with the plastic cheerleaders and bigbellied players. I'm still going to check if the SuperBowl is playing this weekend, even if it begins at midnight and the commercials are French.