VIVE LA DIFFERENCE

KEITH WICKHAM ENJOYS A PACKED WEEKEND OF FOOTBALL IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM...

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A LONG weekend of football awaits but not the usual English fare.

A combined two hours of ferry crossing from Dover and a short drive on a late October Friday saw myself and friend Bernard Dominic arrive in the French city of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Once one end of the now defunct Folkestone hovercraft crossing, it has a history dating back to Roman times, when it was called Gesoriacum, and beautiful centre but, more importantly for our purpose, it is the home of Union Sportive Boulogne Côte d’Opale, a French Ligue 2 team.

We arrived over two hours before kickoff at the Stade de la Liberation and visited the little club store, picking up a glossy printed programme and a few mementoes.

We had planned to see the players arrive as the club said they were starting a new tradition that night, but after the journey and having had little food we decided to hunt for a restaurant.

This led us into the walled city, which was literally across the road from the ground. Unfortunately, we were without scaling ladders and so had to take a longer detour to the Porte de Calais (Calais gate) to get inside.

Passing the 12th Century Notre-Dame Basilica, we wandered to the town square and found a restaurant with the quality of food expected in France. After plates of steak and escollope were devoured, we again detoured, this time walking along the top of the city wall to get back to the ground.

We had purchased two tickets for €20 each online before setting out but could easily have picked them up from the ticket office at the ground.

They gained us entry for that night's league game against En Avant Guingamp. A full body pat down for everyone slowed entry to the 9,534-seater stadium but, as part of the 4,500 attendees, we were in without much trouble.