: Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:25 pm
Got back around half an hour ago, absolutely shattered but still buzzing from a great few days.
Ratings;
Stadium - very impressive, all in all. Apparently it's only an amateur ground, never mind semi pro, and Saturday's game was the biggest it's ever hosted. Very efficient bar staff, friendly stewards and lovely surroundings. A touch disappointing that the ground was situated so far out of the town (15 minutes drive from centre of Toulouse) but needs must, it seems. Passed the RU ground and it looked very much like the LSV; got the Metro to the football ground and it looks superb, albeit reminiscent of the KC Stadium! No raised viewing areas apart from the grandstands (20E tickets) with most Leythers going for the general entrance tickets at 10E and taking advantage of the decking and rockery on one side of the ground - stood with a raised view in the sunshine with a bar 20 yards away!
8/10
Supporters - very welcoming and very friendly. Unfortunately, I only saw one Olympique shirt Thursday/Friday and most locals didn't even know who they were when questioning why there were so many English rugby fans knocking about.
9/10
Entertainment - the local brass band were a little annoying when they first piped up, but everyone got in to the spirit and they were terrific at the post-match marquee do, with a good few Leythers having a go on the various instruments; "It's just a tent full of Leythers"
10/10
Hospitality - Bars, restaurants, supermarkets and bakeries were all very friendly, certainly when pigeon French met pigeon English
A few of the bars were certainly welcome for the custom and stayed open well past closing time to keep the Leythers refreshed
10/10
Food - generally very good. Not a fan of continental breakfasts and I'll happily never see a croissant again, but evening meals were excellent. Literally hundreds of restaurants to choose from, and of varying themes. A lot of places did deals for three course meals, which generally worked out at 20-30E each, including a bottle of local wine and semi-generous tip. The French certainly like their steaks to be mooing a whole lot more than I'm used to in England though
8/10
Beer - costs a fortune! Cheapest pint was 5E in the ground, with everywhere else roughly 6E. Majority cottoned on to the local habit of drinking 25cl Ken Barlow servings at c30E each. Supermarkets were very cheap though and would certainly be the route I'll be going down next year, especially as you can drink on the coaches and take cans in to the ground. 6 cans of Kronenbourg for 3E10, bottles of vodka for 3E40! Drank wine with meals just generally stuck to bottles of Foster's at 5E a bottle thereafter as I wasn't keen on the Irish bitters.
9/10
Travel - Toulouse's Metro system is mind-blowing. So quick, so clean, so calm and unbelievably reasonable price-wise. Buses were regular and actually seemed a better option than the official transfers at times.
10/10 for public transport,
6/10 for official transfers.
Costs - Save up in advance, without a doubt. Spent in the region of 300E Thursday-Sunday which, apart from a 10E Toulouse FC scarf and c5E on transport, was used exclusively for food and drink. Would probably spent c200E less (including travel/hotel etc) next year by arranging things separately and using the supermarkets more often for booze. Still, it was never likely to be cheap.
7/10
Hotels and Accomodation - Ibis Centre (official trip) had a great location and was very easy to find, even after a few beers, but the rooms were very small and the bobbins air conditioning meant it was sweltering at night. Cock up with the official group booking was annoying, while a couple of mates stayed at the Ibis near the railway station and had much. much bigger rooms and all round better hotel!
6/10
Atmosphere - absolutely awesome. Leythers were appearing all over the place, all of the time and I reckon there must have been in the region of 250-300 Leigh fans at the game. Almost constant singing during the game, and a real party atmosphere in the bars throughout the weekend. Loved it. 10/10
Toulouse and the surrounding area - beautiful city, main streets very clean (though tons of dog dirt in the backstreets!), very good transport system and very easy to navigate once you've had some time to get your bearings. Carcassonne similarly impressive, I hear, and will be splitting time between the two next year.
9/10
Official Trip rating - very disappointing for a whole number of aspects, although it did give a chance to have a little more organised itinerary and make things a little easier, albeit at premium cost.
6/10 and won't be using next season.
Weather - hammered it down for 5 hours on Thursday; flash flooding in the streets and big thunderstorms! Friday unsettled; warm to begin with but ended up cloudy followed by a torrential hailstorm just as I was walking between hotels! Saturday and Sunday absolutely gorgeous, as my now olive complexion will prove!
10/10 in the end
All in all, a hugely enjoyable weekend and one I would recommend to everyone - I've already started to save for next year's trip!
Hope that helps
