Rugby and rain in Nice

We rode into Nice through Cagnes-sur-Mer, past the airport and along the Promenade des Anglais until we reached the Jardin Albert 1st, where the Rugby Village is. It took about an hour, taking our time. The wind was in our faces all the way and it was harder work that I’d expected though! At least it wasn’t raining at this time and we were beginning to hope the forecast was wrong.

We locked our bikes around a tree in full view of the gendarmes where we thought they’d be safe. Then, after some water, pain au raisins and a paddle in the fountain to cool off, we went for a drink in Vieux Nice. We ended up sitting next to a couple from Ruthin, which reminds me, the couple opposite us on the campsite are from Wrexham and we’ve chatted to lots of other Welsh people.

The lady from Wrexham is in a choir and had told us there’d be a flash mob of choirs at 1.00, so we returned to Place Masséna for that. It was great seeing so many red shirts, mainly Welsh but plenty of Portuguese too. I stood on a bollard for a better view and had to be careful not to fall off as trams kept passing about 30cm from my face! The atmosphere was great and hearing the singing was wonderful.

We thought we’d better have some lunch before we headed up to the stadium for the match, so we returned to the old town. The bars in the squares were packed so we decided look for somewhere down a back street, like the place we ate at yesterday. We quickly found somewhere with a free table and a lovely menu and sat down. By the time our meal arrived, the sky darkened and the heavens opened, and everyone started running for cover! We were lucky to be quite sheltered in the alleyway, and underneath a canopy. It was perfect timing for our lunch break! 

We ‘had to’ have dessert because it was still raining but, by the time we’d finished eating and paid the bill, it had stopped. I wanted a red dragon ‘tattoo’ on my arm so we went back to the Rugby Village and found the make-up stall. Almost immediately the rain started again so we found shelter under a sculpture! By the time I went back to the stall, they’d finished doing tattoos… oh well! 

We put some festival ponchos on for the 30-40 minute cycle ride up to the stadium. The rain then stopped though and we ended up rather hot, so we were glad to stop and take them off. It was a pleasant surprise to come across a refreshment stall especially for cyclists on our route, with free juice and biscuits… a nice touch. At this point it seemed they were encouraging people to get to the stadium on bikes… less so on the way home… more on that later.

As we rode up a wide road with trams in the middle, trams full of waving rugby fans would pass us, then we’d pass them again when they stopped at a station. It made us laugh and helped the trip pass quickly, and the Stade Allianz Riveria soon came into view. We both needed a wee so our first priority was a toilet. After locking our bikes, we found a bar in a shopping centre right next to the stadium, within an indoor climbing centre. The young staff were very friendly and seemed to enjoy hosting the rugby fans. 

Once inside the stadium, we were pleased to find we had great seats, right in the front row of the second tier. Our flag is on the left in the photo below and you can just about see John behind it. We had a brilliant view of the game. It wasn’t the best performance by Wales, but they got the job done. The last 5 minutes were the most exciting, with Wales pushing for a bonus point try, which they achieved right at the end. Wales 28 Portugal 8. 

We had a couple of dramas after leaving the stadium. Firstly the police (on horseback and rather scary!) wouldn’t let us use the cycle path on the right hand side of the road (the correct side for France), and instead sent us down the left, in the middle of all the pedestrians walking to the trams and shuttle buses. Then I had a run in with an obnoxious shuttle bus driver, who was very unhelpful. Anyway… we eventually managed to get back to the empty cycle path and make our way back to Cagnes-sur-Mer, tired but happy, especially once I had a pizza and Aperol Spritz in front of me 🙂