ConforExpo, Aquitaine Awards Ceremony

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In the afternoon we went to Bordeaux with the Pineuilh baseball club to the ConforExpo. ConfoExpo is a regional trade expo held in a huge indoor convention center that is almost a mile in length. Included in the expo was a sports exposition showcasing all of the sports played in the Aquitaine region of France. I found it to be quite a bizarre event mainly because the sports were presented as a sort of novelty; many of the stands had a station set up where you could ‘try’ the sport, sort of like the games at a carnival or a state fair. There were tiny goals to shoot soccer balls into, swimming pools where you could try out boating, mini bowling alleys, a speed pitch at the baseball stand, etc., etc., Many of the stands had a television with VCR playing a recorded match of their given sport. The baseball stand, for instance, had Game 3 of this year’s world series.
There was one ‘rink’ where various sports could do demonstrations, which was a bit more interesting and practical because you could actually see the sport being played.

But the main reason we were here was for the Aquitaine Region Baseball Awards ceremonies, which were held in the ‘Salon de Sport’ at the expo. The event was held in a small, crowded room with small tables scattered with little bowls of olives, potato chips, peanuts, and bottles of coca-cola. On the walls were advertisements for the ConforExpo (in the ConforExpo) and for ‘Sport-Aquitaine,’ the regional sports association. There was a table in the corner where a local wine merchant was offering tastings of his wines. It was in fact more than just baseball awards, it was also a ceremony for Cricket and Softball as well.

I would categorize this as an awkward event; the cricket and softball players did not know the baseball players and vice versa. The presenters did not have much to say, in fact two of the three speech-givers were individuals who were speaking ‘on behalf of’ the Association Secretary, the Vice-President, etc., and most likely did not attend a single baseball game all year (one of them opened by saying ‘though I admit to not regularly attending the games, I can tell that your sport is flourishing because there are more people in the room this year than there were at the last ceremony’). Almost everyone got an award because there are not many teams in the Aquitaine region, and essentially only the people who were receiving awards attended the ceremony anyway.

The presentations were quick and disorganized. Once people got their awards they seemed more occupied with their own trophies and cups than they were the awards ceremony. I understood later that the hastiness for the event (or so people were saying) was in large part because people wanted to make it home for the start of the France v. New Zealand match that evening. From my perspective it was much more about the ritual and protocol of the event than it was about celebrating or honoring the preceding sports season. Each town has their own similar ceremony honoring the sportsmen from their town, which I am told is much more lively.

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Photos

ConforExpo
This craziness, stretching a mile long.

A game of cricket
The Aquitaine Cricket Club doing demonstrating the game of cricket at the expo

Baseball Awards Ceremony
Some of the Pineuilh players accepting their awards.