A quiet valentine's day. No flowers, no cards, just a nice meal cooked by ma bien-aimée. C'est moi qui l'a fait ces dernières années, that's my excuse. Then a Sunday almost as quiet. We did venture out twice, once to do a hasty video, then later to the football. Too late as it turned out. On the way to the ground we were a little bemused to be on a metro virtually empty, and certainly devoid of OL fans. Speculation as to whether we'd got the wrong day, wrong time or wrong venue ended as we emerged at Gerland. The match had kicked off half an hour earlier than we'd thought. Than I'd thought. Ho hum...
Anyway, we only missed the first fifteen minutes, and it was still 0-0 when we took our seats. Which was no great surprise because the French league leaders have failed to win a home league game since mid November. Fortunately on Sunday they were playing la lanterne rouge, bottom of the league Le Havre. And it all came good finally with a comfortable 3-1 win.
Almost all good anyway. OL's Nigerian defender John Mensah was sent off after two yellow cards in a second half during which he seemed to be trying to see red. It emerged later that he probably was, and had asked to be taken off at half time because he'd been upset by racist taunts by a sprinkling of the handful of Le Havre 'fans'. One of them was arrested and charged, the latest in a spate of incidents in French stadia this season...
Yesterday, while la bienheureuse was away in Germany, it was the turn of my true équipe de coeur to get back on the winning track. And for a change I got a chance to watch it at home, with France Televisions having the rights to the FA Cup this year. Highly gratifying, all in all...
