I finally got to catch a Grenoble Foot 38 match just before xmas, and you know what? They didn’t lose!!! The final score was 1-1 against Nice, which for GF38 is really very good. In my not so expert footballing opinion, they were robbed, too, and it should have been a win. But what do I know.
The Stade des Alpes is a magnificent building. It opened less than 2 years ago, and according to Wikipedia its solar panels generate 70,000kWh a year. I have no idea what they use those kilowatts for though, it’s certainly not heating. We had to scrape the ice off our seats on arrival. But it is gorgeous.
So what’s different about going to the footie in France?
- They don’t sell pies at half time. They sell baguettes, and Vin Chaud. However, they’re also rubbish at estimating required stock levels. They’d run out of all hot baguette fillings, and Vin Chaud, and cans of lager, by the time we got to the food stall. Being fairly experienced sporting event goers, we stood up to go and hit the snacks just before the whistle, and so couldn’t realistically have been any quicker. I reckon the ladies behind the counter drank and ate it all.
- You get thoroughly searched before you go in, but who knows what they’re looking for. Elephants, I guess. They managed to let in MASSES of huge flags (with flagpoles), drums, fireworks…
- People do actually say Ou La La!
- The chants are hard to make out but seem fairly simple. We took along a Genuine Frenchman® so it wasn’t just us being rubbish at understanding what they were on about – the only one we really got into was the fairly straightforward Allez Grenoble!
- Swearing is obligatory. If anything goes wrong or right for your team, you should shout Putain! or Merde! in anger or triumph. Unless you fancy saying Ou La La! instead.
- It’s cold, but maybe that’s just the Stade des Alpes
I don’t know if it’s just that Nice is fairly close to Grenoble (just a paltry 4 hours in a car) or whether there’s a big rivalry, or whether it’s just normal for all Ligue 1 matches, but there were a hell of a lot of riot cops there. Shields, batons, guns… all on display. I tried to catch a photo of them down through the sides of the stadium as they were shifting positions at half time. It didn’t quite come out as I’d hoped but I rather like the picture anyway.
And here’s a photo of some fireworks on the other side of the ground. They threatened to stop the match if anything else landed on the pitch, so the crowd calmed down a bit. Maybe they were just trying to keep warm.
The atmosphere was great though, if a bit cold. Did I mention it was cold? I’ll definitely try to go again.