Roadtrip to the West Coast

Romain, Sly, & Andro settle in for the trip to the west coast.

In Canada, many of us who are not from the lower mainland of British Columbia often refer to the west coast as the "wet coast", due to the perpetual amount of rain and cloud that one can view during the winter months if you so happen to visit the region. Well in France they have the same sense of humour as I found out this past weekend when we went on our west coast road trip to Brest.

Even though France is a relatively small country land-mass wise, it is still a fair size and takes a reasonable amount of time to drive from the central part to the western tip. So we loaded the bus at 06h00 (everyone knows what the "0" stands for right?!?) on Saturday morning and departed for Brest. Fortunately, the Asnieres Hockey Club sees that we travel in style and arranged for a sleeper bus for the team. It's basically a bus with two long rows of bunk beds and is surprisingly comfortable.

After ten hours of travel, we finally arrived in Brest, or as my teammate Romain "Mr.Nike" Sauvage put it; "The closest you can get to Canada while in France". Andro and I waved across the Atlantic but the Newfies weren't paying attention. Awaiting us as we entered the city however were some of France's finest Boys in Blue...along with their trusty radar gun. Of course our bus driver was speeding (71km/h in a 50km/h zone) and of course we were pulled over. After handing over a ticket and directions to the hockey rink, we were on our way to get ready for the game.

The town of Brest sent the police to greet our entrance to the town.

After being welcomed by the cops, we finally arrived at the rink or "Rinkla" as it is known in Brest. The game started at 6 pm and ended about three hours later. I'll spare you the details for now, but we were playing the top team in the league with only three lines and four defensemen while missing one of our imports and our top scoring french player due to injury and one of our top four defensemen due to work. We took a pretty harsh thumping and limped away with a 13-3 thrashing around our necks. Details will follow at a later date.

The arena in Brest. By far the best ice I have played on in France.

The best part about a road trip is the team bonding that occurs during the post game meal and subsequent trip back home. After the game, we went to a nice little restaurant where I had the pleasure of having my first steak since being in France. As previously explained after our trip to Cherbourg, the French have a law that requires the bus drivers (yes, there are two of them) to rest for nine hours before we can make the return trip. Since our game ended at 9 pm, we eat at 10 pm, and then had the pleasure of visiting amonst ourselves for the next couple of hours.

Nothing like a post-game steak with the boys.

At 01h00, Sunday morning, we finally loaded up the bus for the return journey to Asnieres. After a fine little tune sung by the entire team (Oh Champs Elysees), we settled in for the night on our luxurious sleeper coach. Eight hours later, we arrived back home in Asnieres...and so ended the wet coast...I mean west coast roadtrip.