Manu does Floorball

Hello again.

Whilst Nina has fun with volley in Fontaine, Manu goes every Friday evening to Lyon to play floorball. In the link, a little explanation for those of our readers that do not know this sport. Floorball, Unihockey, Innebandy or Salibandy... the name matters little: it is a great game, very dynamic and fun. Manu belongs to the club Lyon Floorball, the Pirates du Rhône. There are only 9 teams in France, and the only french floorball league is already national, the French Championship. The games are played in a tournament system, only couple of weeks a year of match, played in cities like Marseille, Lyon, Orleans or Paris.

Pictures of Manu and 'co-equipiers' in the second round of the national competition can be found here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Nina does Volleyball

Hi there,

Well, not everything in Grenoble is mountains, even though is very close to that. We also do some indoor sports. Nina belongs to the volleyball club AS Fontaine (Assotiation Sportive Fontaine). Fontaine is a town neighbour to Grenoble, on the other side of Drac river. Her team plays in the N3F league (National Trois Féminine). They face teams from Grenoble, but they go also to Lyon, or even as far as Nîmes or Montpellier.

Pictures of Nina and her team 'mates' are here.

Until our next post.
-Manu & Nina-

La Foulée Blanche - Autrans

Hello again,

This is the continuation of our visit to Vercors: saturday night, ice hockey in Villard-de-Lans, and sunday morning cross-country ski in Autrans. The Vilage of Autrans is on the plateau of Vercors, some 15km from Villard-de-Lans. Both villages where Olympic Sites during the Grenoble Winter Olympic Games, in 1968. Villard-de-Lans hold the luge competitions, and Autrans the cross-country and the smaller ski-jumpings. By-the-way these Winter Games of 1968 are remembered these days in Grenoble, for its 40th anniversary, with expositions and cultural events.

The village of Autrans organize every winter the cross-country race called la Foulée Blanche. It is a very popular competition, with different levels of participants, from pros to amateurs. The ambiance in the town was very festive. Part of this year's run crossed throughout the village, were they have piled snow in the streets and built ski tracks.

Since the day was very sunny, we decided to have a bit of fun, we too! We had in the car's trunk our blue 'pulkka' (plastic sled) from Finland, and we were to the ski-jump hill to slide it down! There were just families with little kids and us! :) hehe... it was great fun.

More pictures (and a video of us sliding down-hill!) are available here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-

Ice Hockey Game

Hello,

For one time, we have spent the weekend watching winter sports instead of practicing them. Few weeks ago we went to Villard-de-Lans, in Vercors, to witness the big 'derby' of the French Ice Hockey National League: the Ours (Bears) from Villar-de-Lans receiving the Brûleurs de Loups (Wolfs' Burners) from Grenoble.

The ice rink is situated in a Sports Center in 'downtown' Villard. Well, if there's such a thing as downtown in a village of about 4000 people. The place is quite nice, in the middle of the 'plateau' of Vercors, surrounded by mountain ridges, and at an altitude of 1050 meters. There's also a nice ski station Villard-Corrençon, for either alpine or cross-country ski.

Needless to say that in Villard, this is regarded as a great game of the modest little team of Villard against the big rival from the big town, Grenoble, with a team full of international stars. The ambiance in the sports hall was great, very festive and even musical, with a band preforming among the public.

From the sports point of view, it was a very nice match, with lots of goal opportunities and a total of 6 goals, an extra period and the penalties. Villard opened the score, but Grenoble took soon the lead. In the last minute of usual period, Grenoble was sill leading 2:3 ... but Villard scored 3:3 with only 40 seconds to go. At this stage, every team got a point, but the match was not over... they played and extra period to obtain a final winner. The extra period is played with only 4 field players, and with 'golden goal'. They didn't score, though, and they went to the penalties shot. Grenoble got the final victory in the penalties, and got an extra point, but Villard sure fought a brilliant game. Pictures can be seen here.

The next day we went to Autrans, 15 km from Villard, to see the Foulee Blanche, a cross-country competition... but that's another story and must be told in another post.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-