Alexandra, Desney and I piled in to the car and headed off to our friends Minh & Serge’s for dinner in Chatou.
As we were driving along we kept seeing Portugese flags every now and then and heard people screaming in the streets. We all knew that today was the England v. Portugal match. But we had forgotten what time. The match was going on just while we were driving. Luckily we arrived at Minh & Serge’s before the match ended.
We had a great time at dinner and I was able to eat most things served. I had to miss out on the stuff I can no longer handle like potatoes, bread, cheese and that sort of thing. We had some delicious foie gras as a starter served in some pretty hefty chunks. I can’t remember ever eating foie gras without bread or a biscuit of some sort. It’s certainly not the same experience and something is lacking. However I certainly am not complaining as it was delicious all the same and the perfectly chilled and served Sauternes certainly made me forget the lack of bread pretty quickly. I was able to taste most of the wine. But I know I’m definitely missing something as my nose tastes so much more than my mouth does.
It became apparent during the apéritif that we were not the only football fans at the soirée and they amazingly adapted the entire meal so that we could all eat in the salon watching the match on the television while we talked. They literally moved all of the plates and silverware from the big table to the salon table nonchalantly and we continued as though this was what was planned in the first place. Serge did an amazing job on the barbecue. The meat was still juicy and flavourful which I do not tend to achieve on my barbecue. I’m going to have to start thinking about getting a Weber barbecue like his someday… Thankfully there was a lot of undercooked available for me which tends to be the only way I can eat meat without it taking an hour for me to chew. It was delicious. The red which accompanied the meat was outstanding: a Chassagne-Montrachet 1èr Cru 1995! Actually there were 3 bottles of this which we all went through and they were each unique. They were all excellent… each person had a particular preference for a particular bottle. I know I missed out on at least 20 to 25% of the experience… but the 75% I could taste was amazing.
Throughout the meal we watched the game off and on while talking and eating. As the entire world knows by now France won one to nothing against Brazil. We were all quite pleased not least of all myself as I had gotten pretty good odds on the match on BetFair not that long ago and had picked up enough to pay for petrol getting out to Chatou and back {vbg}.
We left there at about half past midnight and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a celebratory nightmare. It appears as though every person of Portuguese or French origin, and there are quite a lot of both of these throughout the Ile de France region, had come out of their homes brandishing full country flags on their poles and had jumped in their cars to populate the roads and honk their horns throughout. As we tried to drive to the autoroute, at an average speed of about 5 kilometres per hour, we were in the midst of what was practically a parade with French and Portuguese fans all along the sides of the road screaming and shouting and waving their flags. I of course joined in on the honking as well as I don’t actually need too much of an excuse to honk my car’s horn. It took us forever to get to the autoroute and we didn’t get home until about 1:15. Alexandra passed out as soon as we got home, Desney and I had our classic driving experience argument and we all piled in to our beds exhausted after a wonderful night out and we proceeded to sweat in our hot beds throughout the night…
Now we eagerly await the semi-final (France v. Portugal) on July 5th!
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