Today is the day of the Big Match – Toulouse v Bath, the opening match in this season's Heineken European Cup. This will be the first live rugby match that we have seen since Bath played in Albi (close to here) last December. But kick-off wasn't until 16:00 so we had to to find something to do beforehand.
Being a Sunday, the buses back to the campsite finish at 19:00 and that would make it very tight to get back from the match in time. However, Marc at the campsite told us where we could park the motorhome near to a Metro station and we followed his advice. We started at the Place St. Sernin where there was a large flea market and we also took a look in the church of the same name but, as there was a service in progress, we only stayed briefly at the back. We then moved on to the intriguing Jacobin Monastery, with its very high ceilings and the tomb of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the 13th Italian philosopher. After an excellent lunch close to the Garonne River we crossed it and walked slowly along the banks towards the stadium. That is actually on an island in the middle of the river and we needed to walk over another bridge to get to it. We then discovered that there was no easy way up the very high flood-defence walls. After informing a group of Bath supporters on hired bicycles, that they were going to have a problem, we climbed up some steep emergency steps and over the top of the wall and down onto the pavement. When we arrived we bought tickets for €15 each (very reasonable compared to England) and we entered the enormous stadium. I can't quite understand why the stadium is a football stadium when rugby is much bigger than football in Toulouse. The stadium was nearly full by the time of the kick off and although there were quite a few Bath supporters, we were hugely outnumbered by a very enthusiastic and vocal crowd. I won't go into detail about the game but just to say it was very close, tense and Bath were winning with only three minutes to go. Toulouse won, kicking a penalty with the last kick of the match but Bath scored the only two tries.
After the match we met up with our good friends Paul and Louisa and other supporters would had made the journey to Toulouse. After a chat, we had to make our way back to Henrietta but we arranged to meet up again tomorrow.
Photos: A very large mirror in the Jacobin Monastery allows people to view the ceiling without breaking their necks but also allows interesting views of the people; The monastery ceiling; These people were very calm given that these flying saucers had just landed by the river; Bath pressing on the Toulouse try line – needless to say, both Bath tries were scored in the second half, as far away from us as possible at the other end; A group of Bath supporters.
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