first home game of the season last night, a hot night at Stade de la Meinau, first game in Ligue 2, and the correct result, a goal in the 81st minute from James Fanchone against the southern boys from Montpellier. See the report here - only if you can read French of course, and be glad it is in French - as our MP, Armand Jung, said in his annual report to the constituency, when referring to his support for the regional languages of France (which the government will not countenance) that the Racing's fans give their support in Alsacien not French. This may present a linguistic challenge for significant other when he gets on the bus with the fans going to the away game on Friday night against Dijon, mustard capital of the world. But he is a German speaker, which...

although I am a Germanophile I was pleased with last night's result. We watched most of it in Paddy Whelan's pub in Riga, on a feed from Russian TV, missed a chunk of the second half because significant other Is Always Right and so thought we should get the bus (the last one had gone) back to our hotel rather than the trolleybus (which runs later, as I knew). We are back in Riga this week, and I was sad to leave our Hansel and Gretel cottage in the forest by the Baltic , though significant other called it a shed. I leave Riga by Air Baltic to Paris, then onward flight to Strasbourg, on Saturday, significant other goes to London as he is working in the UK this summer. Ah, lonely...

is what the Racing website commentary on last night's match had to say about the Valenciennes attempt at goal in the first half which really ought to have gone in but which hit the bar instead. No goals were scored. And it was cold. Really cold. In winter they serve hot wine at the stadium, and significant other and I had some. For the first time I "got" mulled wine. I had had it before and not much liked it. But there is nothing better when you are standing outdoors on a November night in Alsace. The temperature gauge on the display at the ground said 5 deg - felt a lot colder to me.Speaking of wine, significant other and I had a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau this week. Felt we ought to somehow. And I "got" that too. When it was in vogue in the UK I could never really see the...

We have tickets for "le foot" at "Le Racing" tomorrow (Strasbourg-Bordeaux). The match was scheduled for 2000, as they are in this country, but last week the ticket agency I bought the tickets from on line (women get in half price, can you believe that?) emailed to say the match had been rescheduled to 1600 and there would be no refunds. I imagine, just hazarding a guess, that the assumption was that Les Bleus would be in the final and that football fans would want to watch it. It is rather sad to see displays still up in shops here of the "Tous Derriere Les Bleus" variety. Watching the England-France match at home last weekend, with family members, we did try to cheer quietly. Significant other did suggest, not entirely seriously, that he might drape his flag of St George over our...