Les Crocs de Nîmes

By "crocs," i'm not talking about the rubber shoes that were le mode in the U.S. before I left. I actually went to see the Nîmes Crocodiles soccer team play on Friday night. The air was intense; if Nîmes won against St. La Val they would move up from Ligue Nationale, France's third division of scocer, to Ligue 2, obviously the second. The game was sold out, with 18,000 Nîmes supporters screaming the following chants:

• "Qui ne saute pas n'est pas nîmois! Hé!" - If you don't jump you're not from Nîmes! Hey!
• "Paris - Paris - On arrive!" - Paris, Paris, we're coming! This one I need to explain. Paris won last night to finish 17th out of 20 in Ligue 1. If they had lost they would have dropped down into Ligue 2, which means they would be probably the only soccer team in a European capital city to be in the second division, and would play Nîmes.
• "On est en Ligue 2! On est en Ligue 2! On est, on est, on est en Ligue 2!" - We're in Ligue 2! This cheer only happened at the end.

St. La Val was a team that passed well and had better control of the ball, but Nîmes had a stronger defense and dominated the possession. St. La Val scored first on a rebound off the goalie, and then Nîmes scored twice before halftime - one on a free kick and another on a long pass that beat the defense. The third goal from Nîmes, which was similar to the second, followed halftime and put Nîmes securely into Ligue 2. Anyways, the ambiance was fun, and I finally got to a soccer game in France.

In other news, it's finally nicer weather here after raining nearly all week and Saturday. I got out for a ride this afternoon and barely saw any cars for a decent amount of time, which was awesome. I hope everyone's good, and I'll be sure to blog a few more times before I get home in a month!