lille, france part 3

The original thought of my lovely husband Marco's idea to take a quick weekend trip to Lille was that we could surprise his friend Ian.

Like I said in Part 1, Ian has been playing ball in Europe for 10 years now.  This was finally our opportunity to see him in action and we couldn't wait to see the look on his face!

After our day at the museum, a lazy lunch at a pizzeria (where Marco, wearing his Napoli hat, had fun conversing in Italian with the young restaurant owners), and almost an hour perusing L'Abbaye des Saveurs, we went back to our hotel, got our car and headed over to the nearby town Orchies to see Ian in action.

Good thing we got there early, this. was. the. place. to. be. on. Saturday. night.  We paid our entry fee, entered the gym, purchased a couple ham baguettes and rose beers from concessions, and took it all in.  Excitement butterflies of we-can't-wait-to-see-his-face began to build in our stomachs as we watched the home team, Le Bugs, enter the side gym like rock stars and high five some of the waiting kids.



a big game for number 2 and 3 ranked teams

 

 

 

We finished our beers and went to find our seats ("not the blue or white! only the brown seats!" sorry v.i.p. lady) as the teams warmed up on the court.  French rap and pop music is screaming throughout the gym, a local MC on mic getting the crowd pumped.  No sign of Ian warming up, we start to count the heads on each team and relax realizing all the players aren't on the court yet.

le bugs in blue and white, cognac in orange

10-15 minutes later, more french rap, more MC, and the gym filling up.  Still no Ian.  We start to laugh and speculate.  WHAT IF HE ISN'T HERE?  WHAT WOULD BE OUR LUCK?  Marco ponders, "nooo, he has to be here.  He is having an amazing season.  He played last week.  He hasn't missed a game this season."  Our phone doesn't work in France so there is no way to check the internets for some info.  As the hour long warm ups wind down we still won't give up and come to realization that our big surprise my not be happening.

All the players return to the locker room for a few and then reemerge about 15 minutes until tip off.  STILL NO IAN.  Marco says, "He isn't here, he isn't coming, I can't believe it."  We are dying laughing, kinda bummed.  My dad Nigel comes to mind and I say, "wait until we get back to England and the family asks how the game was and we have to say he wasn't there!"  We could hear my dad's, very amused, loud laugh already. 

here i am missing the tip off because i need to get a shot of my shoes in the khloe kardashian seats



i LOVED the le bugs bunny.  she shuffled around the floor (again, french rap music) dancing during time outs (i wanted to see her eat it), then would return to her corner and take her bunny head off so she could fully watch.  serious fan.

Soooo long story long, we stayed for the game still enjoying ourselves but wondering why he wasn't there.  We cursed Le Bugs under our breath each time their big man scored, "Ian would be crushing that guy.  He would never be scoring like this if Ian was blocking!"  Le Bugs (said each time in our french accent) won.  Boo.

We drove back to Lille and got on the internets to email Ian.  He didn't make the trip to the away game because he was suspended for one game for previous technical fouls.  He was shocked we were there and found it very funny.  He couldn't believe we managed to snag tickets (small gym and the.place.to.be.) and told us "I guess you didn't want free tickets.  If you told me you would be there I would have come!"  Then we all agreed that a trip down to Cognac for a home game is a must.  Can't wait.