“Map out your future – but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip.”

Jon Bon Jovi

Sites/Topics covered in this post:

• World Cup Game in Le Havre
• Étretat

Go-Date: Day 149, Thursday, June 20

Lesson Learned:   FIFA, France and Le Havre in particular did a very bad job of hosting the Women’s World Cup game between Sweden and the United States, in my opinion. I’ll say this was the worst professional sports event I’ve ever attended…..bar none!

The game itself was good, but everything surrounding it was pathetic. So, why would I say this? Well, here are a few reasons:

• Promotions were really minimal. When we got off the plane at Charles De Galle (CDG) in Paris we were greeted by French Open tennis posters on every billboard, posters in the airport, posters in the metro, and signs/posters all over town. I think we saw 2 World Cup posters, and they were in the window of a sporting goods store and of course they were in support of the French National Team, not the World Cup as a whole.
• Le Havre is pretty far off the beaten path up in Normandy. If you went any further west, you’d be in England.
• The stadium in Le Havre holds only 22,000 people.
• There was only reserved parking at the stadium.
• There were no signs or even advice from parking personnel on where you could park if you didn’t have reserved parking.
• You had to park on the street, but it was fairly close, and it was free. We worried the whole game that we might be ticketed for our parking space.
• The reserved parking was not full at the time of kick-off.
• There is nothing around the stadium in Le Havre. No bars, cafés, no vendors, nothing. Its located in a dodgy neighborhood with only a convenience store located in a public low-income housing block. Everything was behind the gates which opened two hours before kickoff. When you arrive, you twiddle your thumbs until the gates open.
• They didn’t have metal detectors, so you got a pat down when entering the stadium. (wow, that was fun)
• This was a Women’s World Cup game, so of course there were 3 women matrons doing the pat down and 10 male matrons doing the groping. So of course, there was a 15- minute wait for the women to get into the stadium, and men cruised through without delay.
• This was a Women’s World Cup game, so of course there were the same number of restrooms for men and women. Before the game even began, women were using the men’s restroom (along with men) so it was a unisex bathroom. Europeans are really casual about urinals anyway, so in most restaurants the urinals are right across from the sinks which are shared by men and women. Viva la whizzzzz.
• There was no alcohol being served in the stadium. When was the last time you went to a pro event where that was the case? Maybe BYU vs Oral Roberts in basketball? Oh, that’s college sports.
• We went online the very first day tickets were available and paid extra for lower stadium. FIFA would not allow you to reserve your seats when you bought the tickets, they just assigned them to you. So, our tickets were 3 rows from the top in the sun field. At least we got to sit next to each other.
• The stadium was only 90% occupied when the game began.
• The concession stands all sold exactly the same food. The food was awful, though not outrageously priced. But, how much is food so bad you didn’t eat worth?
• The half-time activities stunk. They sang happy birthday to someone (who knows who, or cares?). They did the dance cam thing, and they did nothing else.
• When the game went into stoppage time they didn’t display the time on the monitors.
• The only place you could check on the time left in the game was on the TV monitors.
• When they lost the monitors due to technical difficulties, the game stopped early in the second half because the referee didn’t know how much time had elapsed.
• After the game, they closed multiple stairs out of the stadium so you had to walk half way around it before you could exit.
• There were no police directing traffic after the game. There were no barricades to keep you from going down a dead end road.
• We sat motionless for 45 minutes before traffic began to move. Keep in mind, there were only 22,000 people at this game. I’ve seen Texas HS football playoff games that had more attendance move quicker than this.

This was a sorry excuse for a professional athletic event. FIFA really does not respect women.

Women’s World Cup at Le Havre

This was supposed to be a once in a lifetime event for us. It turned out to be an event we will only do once in our lifetime, even if we have another opportunity.

Leaving Fountainbleau, we headed northwest towards Le Havre. It’s a nice drive. The bridge over the Seine coming into town is spectacular, almost like the Golden Gate bridge (not quite as grand). It was raining, when we rolled into town and we were looking forward to checking into our hotel and then walking around the city which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. That never happened.

As we followed the directions of the GPS, the city got more and more like an industrial park on the south side of Dallas. Pretty ugly, street people, narrow streets, lots of trucks, and weird directions that had us turning on streets and alleys to get to the hotel.

On arrival, the outside of the hotel (Eklo Hotel) made me long for Tom Bodett and Motel 6. We sat in the car for a few minutes making sure we had the right place. We knew we’d booked an inexpensive inn, but it was still well over $100 a night when we booked it 8 months ago. The nice places were over $300 a night and all gone by the time we’d arrived. Online, it didn’t look like it was too bad and we were only going to be here for two nights.

Finally, we got out of the car and grudgingly went to the front desk. The clerk was friendly and cheerful, and had all her teeth, but I can’t make the same claim for her assistant. After taking our credit card info, the assistant gave us two towels and told us we could get more towels in the morning for tomorrow night if we take a shower (hmmm, must be optional). Boy, and I glad we paid 2 Euros extra for a TV. That must mean we have a deluxe room.

 Nope, that was a bad assumption. The room was on the first floor (2^nd floor in America), but that’s OK, they had an elevator. But, I was still glad I left our luggage in the car until we checked this place out. The room was 12’x12’ with no closet (it had a coat hanger on the wall), and a curious frosted glass box in the corner. Oh, that’s the bathroom. Its all of 4’x4’. When Ellen opened the door, she couldn’t find a shower (so why did we need towels?) finally, she found the shower head over the toilet. The entire box was the shower.

I sat on the bed, and must admit, it was the most comfortable cardboard box I’ve ever sat on. The pillows reminded me of Ikea floor mats (or maybe a 1960’s runway model a.k.a. Twiggy) as they were so flat that with the covers pulled up (no beadspread) you thought there weren’t any pillows to sleep on. It took all of 42 seconds to decide we aren’t staying here (OK, we bailed out on $132 a night, but I think the fleas had bed bugs in this place.) On our way out to the car, a dozen bikers on Harleys’ pulled up, but I was going to miss partying with them tonight. The only way out of the hotel was back through the lobby, which I’m sure was to keep people from sneaking contraband in or people out. Whatever the reason, we bid the Eklo adieu.

We did a quick search and nothing within 10 kilometers of the city was available. Most hotels that looked ok were more like 24 Km away. So we settled on a lovely place called Les Pins de César (https://lespinsdecesar.com/), which simply put was an oasis in the middle of paradise. Pricey, yes. Worth it? Absolutely. We liked it so much that we wanted to stay an extra night, but they only had suites available and they were 460 Euros a night ($523, which was too rich for my palate, but we were tempted).

I’m already put my gripes about the game above, but we did enjoy the actual soccer. America versus Sweden. Both are good teams, but the Americans were favored. The game started fast, and the Americans scored in the first 3 minutes. It seemed like after that, the Swedes figured them out and the half ended 1-0. The second half started much the same as the first and the Americans scored again for a 2-0 lead, and then struggled to keep the Swedish ball out of the net. The Americans didn’t dominate, but you could tell they were the better team. We enjoyed the game, but will probably support the American women on TV from now on.

Ooh La La Étretat

Jacques (Jock, or John if you want to Anglicize the name) the manager at Les Pins told us we must go to Étretat before we turn south for Mont Saint Michel after we leave Le Havre. It was some of the best advice we’ve received on this trip. Étretat is a commune (village) in the Seine-Maritime department in Normandy in north-western France. Originally it was a farming town on the coast of the English Channel about 32 km (20 mi) north of Le Havre, but now, it looks as if there’s as much tourist trade going on here as wheat growing.  

Étretat is best known for its chalk cliffs, including three natural arches and a pointed formation called L’Aiguille or the Needle, which rises 70 meters (230 ft) above the sea. The Etretat Chalk Complex, as it is known, consists of a complex stratigraphy of Turonian and Coniacian chalks. Some of the cliffs are as high as 90 meters (300 ft). These cliffs and the associated resort beach attracted artists including Eugène Boudin, Gustave Courbet and Claude Monet. These cliffs are ever as beautiful as the cliffs of Dover, but for some reason unknown to most folks in the US (if I can be so bold to assume that if I’ve never heard of them most other Americans have not as well). Dover just must have a better publicist.

We only spent a couple of hours here, but had we not made reservations south of here, we’d have found a room and stayed at least one night.  So, if you are coming to France, and you plan to visit Normandy (it’s a huge mistake if you don’t) be sure to put Étretat on your itinerary.