We kept Sunday low key and drove around the suburbs of Perpignan to see what they looked like. Honestly, it reminded me strongly of our suburbs, with lots of housing and a bit less in the way of restaurants and patisseries open on Sunday. We eventually found somewhere to grab a bite to eat, then spotted the Decathalon store (also closed on Sunday), got a little lost, and returned to the room for some bread, cheese, and a movie, Amélie. Amélie was a neat movie, very much an exploration of the main character’s life and quirks as she gets lured into stepping out of her shell more and more.
Then we drove to the big game: the Catalan Dragons against some foolish interloper. (The Wigan Warriors, according to Jennifer). Their mascot is on the “super cute” end of the cute/fierce scale.
Down on the field there was some Rugby. The first half, most of the action was on our end– bad news for the Dragons, who were defending the goal on our end. Well, trying– their opponents ran up a substantial lead early, despite the dragons being heavily favored.
Of course, I say “our end”, but this was another of those confusing… things work sometimes, but not others. We must have been the first people to ever purchase our tickets on the internet, because three out of 4 “bouncers” directed us from one side to the other– the only thing they knew was that the tickets wouldn’t let us sit in their section. Even though the other bouncer had sent us there.
Finally, the fourth guy let us wander right by and claim our seats a few minutes before the match started. No clue what he saw that the others didn’t… but it was amusing, and made me think of their phone and net struggles. Anyway, below are random pictures from the game. There’s really no story to them- just random shots throughout the game.
I liked rugby, though I’d have liked to watch a couple more games so I could start to learn through repetition. It doesn’t supplant American football (or soccer) yet– but I’ve only been exposed once. I did like the pace and points– it scores like football, but the pace is constant like soccer. Really, it’s a great hybrid.