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Published: October 5th 2005
Savate 1
Caroline will commence training for this ASAP?30/9/05 - The RER Affair
Right this minute I am exhausted - I have just spent about 4 and a half hours trying to get from Paris Gare de l’Est (rail station) to CDG Airport and back, just to drop some bloody suitcases off - who had that bright idea?
We met my sister Marg, husband Rob (lots of Rob’s in this blog) and their two children, Thomas and Courtney, at Gare de l’Est. They had taken the train from Strasbourg and it would be our only chance to meet up while we are all in France.
So, Rob (the husband) decided it would be a great idea if Rob (the blogger) helped him take most of the luggage to their hotel. Meanwhile the others would wait for our return in a café. Well, it was a reasonable plan, but …
We took the metro to Gare du Nord, and then changed to the RER for CDG airport. Things went a bit down hill form there. We took the baggage down to the platform and Rob (the husband) raced back to buy the tickets. All the machines were out of service, so he had to join an
Savate 2
This was a good bout between France & Italy. The French women has been featured on Aussie TV endless line to purchase them. One hour later, Rob (the blogger) was still waiting with the bags on the platform and had watched 7 trains for CDG come and go.
Finally on board the train and we thought our trials were over, not so! Rob (the husband) spotted our station and we disembarked. First thing we noticed was that there were definitely no taxis, no buses, no people and no signs of life. Guess what - wrong station. Back to the platform again and on board the next train, we get to CDG and grab a taxi. In moments we were at the correct hotel and deposited the bags in the room. The hotel luckily had a shuttle bus back to the RER station, but it was five euro per passenger, guess what - no money! We had left it all with our respective wives.
Go the bus fare sorted and then ordered a beer at the bar while we waited for the bus, guess what - no beer arrived, the waitress clearly won “most slovenly staff member of the month award”. So, we boarded the bus in company of two raging thirsts. Back at the RER station
Savate 3
Caroline, with her new coaching team? we realized our tickets were not valid for the station the bus had dropped us at. So, we jumped the barrier. Just as my feet hit the ground around the corner came two French Military officers, complete with machine guns and a Police officer. Luckily they were looking the other way at the right moment and we managed to get away with that one.
The RER delivered us back at Gare du Nord, and then the metro did likewise for us to Gare de l’Est. We had a hurried meal at a Turkish eatery and said goodbye to Marg and the kids. Great trip - it took us just as long as the journey they had just made from Strasbourg to Paris!
30/9/05 - International Savate Federation
For those who do not know, Savate is a French version of kickboxing. Lorenza and I paid a visit to the International headquarters of the sport here in Paris. We were greeted by Glennys Verone, who is the federations sole paid employee. She gave us a tour of the premises and invited us to attend a tournament which was being held tomorrow. The weigh in and some preliminary fights were
also on today. I agreed to return later that afternoon and try and meet Glennys at the gym the tournament was at after we had completed another appointment we had.
Form there we went and met Pa at his hotel and awaited the arrival of his friends from St. Nectaire. We had coffee and a chat with them and then I went back to the gym, while Lorenza, Pa, Kees and Lenie went to Montmartre.
At the gym I was lucky enough to meet a number of the officials form the visiting teams, which included contestants from France, Italy, Germany, England, Belgium and Slovenia (plus some other countries I did not catch). In total there are 108 contestants registered for the event. I had an interesting discussion in French with one gentleman, who was laughing heartily at the end of our conversation; Glennys then explained that he had invited me to fight him the following day! Ahh, the French sense of humor - did I really agree to that?
So, we know have an appointment to watch the finals tomorrow evening at around 6pm, which should be magnifique. Many thanks to Glennys for being so friendly and
kindly introducing me to some warm and friendly, fellow martial artists. More on Savate soon ….
1/10/05 European Savate Assaut Championships
French cousin to commence training for next World Championships? Uncle Robert, Caroline, Lorenza and I attended the International Savate Federations, European Assaut championships at Gym Racine, Clichy. Club Clichy is reputed to have produced many of France’s best Savateurs. In total there were 108 contestants entered in the competition. We did not attend until about 6pm, so we could see the semi final and final bouts.
On arriving I spotted Gilles le De Duigou, the Vice President and Technical Director of the Federation. We chatted and agreed to meet up when I return to Paris. Gilles is a charming man and also a world champion at Savate, many times over.
Points scoring in Savate is four points for a strike to the head, two for the body and one for the legs. The level of contact was enough to make the contest realistic; the speed of the bouts was well paced and exciting. I was impressed by the level of the competition, with speed, stamina and technique being of the utmost importance.
Competitors
came from countries such as Slovenia, Bulgaria, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and naturally a very big French team. One feature of the semi finals and finals was that France did not completely dominate, generally there was a French savateur fighting a contestant from another nation. This impressed me because it indicates that the French do not totally dominate the sport.
Unfortunately the venue was not fantastic, they had held some of the preliminary fights at another gym, but it had been double booked for the Saturday, so they had to move the event to the gym at Clichy. The lighting was bad for the contestants, but they made up for this with great intensity.
While watching a final between a German women and a Slovenian, I put $5 euro on the Slovenia and lost my cash to my cousin Caroline. Some of the French officials agreed with me that we could easily train Caroline up as a worthy contestant for next years competition (perhaps I will discuss this with Gilles when I return to Paris - what do you think Caroline?)
Following this Lorenza and I decided to enjoy our last night in Paris with a lovely meal together at Trocedéro. Tomorrow we leave for Alsace.
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Rob and Marg
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Our baggage
Rob the blogger accurately described the adventure the 2 Robs had with the baggage now the others left behind sat outside in the rain because the cafe was too filled with smokers. Lucky the waiter took pity that our husbands had left us and allowed us to sit there for as long as we could bear it and we had ordered as many hot chocs coffee and vin as the little money our husbands had left with us before we had to move on with still no sign of our husbands....lorenza found the affordable Turkish dinner joint and we finally all sat down together at 11PM for dinner....next time let's just meet in Sydney minus the baggage!