God ESO do you make notes :/ I'm often lucky in just knowing how I got there :0 specially on the Wembley funbus that you'll witness this year. We r gonna go to Toulouse nxt year, be an idea for the club to run a trip. I'm sure if enough ppl show an interest in going it warrants em doing something abt it.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I, am officially, ars€holed!"
Me - approx 4.10am Saturday - Rue de Bayard, Toulouse, France.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for making that a weekend and birthday that I don't think I will ever forget. Amazing support for the team and great of the boys to thank us for our efforts. I think the kazoos idea was brilliant. Yes I was a little merry on Saturday but I remember everything and I haven't lost anything (cough HL cough). Having happy birthday serenaded to me followed by being handed a full bottle of a nice savignon blanc was a personal highlight.

Thank you to the players and staff for their friendliness and best wishes and giving me a fantastic present with three points. Indeed I was sat with Mr Hicks on the flight home, great company and a good guy.

Weekends like this reminds me that there is good in this life. I hope the only way from here is up.

Merci.

I can only echo what the guys have said above, yet another great trip.
Robert Hicks and Dave Milburn were great company on Saturday and I’ll definitely try and view the officials in a different light in future.

We bumped into Bobby Goulding at the ground and had a nice chat to him too. He looks as fit now as when he played.

I made a great attempt en Franglais apologising to our maid blaming the fact that I was sick on a dodgy burger. It didn’t help with the fact that the room had artexed walls but she cleaned it all out and I DID leave a good tip when I checked out!!!

The boat trip with ESO was a bit crap because I thought we'd go down the broad majestic Garonne but we ended up going up a little canal. The boat must have run on bio-fuel as coming back all you could smell was old chip fat. The highlight though was a punch up between 2 local young lads after one tried to push the other in the canal. These were eagerly cheered on by ESO with shouts of “Gooo on lad, chin him!!)

I thought that the kazoos were very effective especially in the Tabac et Salad when we went into direct competition with the wedding party.

Tim Bergin got the MOTM but all we had as a trophy was a large bag of crisps. But as these are potatoes and Tim’s Irish maybe they went down OK


Special mention too (and a welcome) to Simon Brown but everyone played well.

I’m not 100% sure about Bristol to Toulouse again as the 3.5 hour journey back is a bit of a downer, especially with over an hours delay leaving Toulouse.

A great weekend with a great team performance and a great bunch of supporters to a man and woman.

** Note to self take a baseball cap rather than a bandana next time.

IF anyone who hasn’t been before would like to go here’s the approximate costs.
£80 per person flights
€110 Euros per room for the weekend
Local transport to stadium €3 return
Drinks €€€€

If anyone is interested in organising a package – sorry but I don’t have the time to do this myself but here’s what one company put together for Widnes – this is 3 nights though


TOULOUSE 3 NIGHT TRAVEL PACKAGE 2010

* Return Flights from Liverpool airport
* Transfers to / from your hotel

* Kyriad Toulouse City Centre inc breakfast

* Watch your team in a full training session
* Transfers to / from stadium
* Match Tickets
* Friday night event to watch UK Sky Match including Hors d’oeuvre
* Bi -ligual guide
* Deposit only required to make your reservation


From £ 365 per person
Based on two or three people sharing a room Single supplement is £ 40 per night if required

It's infinitely cheaper to do it yourself. Packages are great for clubs like Widnes who will take 400/500 and the organisers can turn a profit on it. Given our unfortunate numbers it's difficult but if we share travel info we can get together to come up with a plan. Just slept from 1.30am to 10am, the longest I've slept uninterrupted in nearly a year. Don't know what that means....

Airborne I'd forgotten about them two kids scrapping by the canal - quality entertainment!!

And I just remembered about us getting mooned by the kids on the river bank.

We need to get Scud if we do the same next year

What an absolutely awesome weekend. From phantom minibuses, to flying over barriers, jeans smelling of jagermeister, missing spectacles, the whole thing was sensational. And i'm still laughing at Jazz and his vuvuzela!!

Oh yeah haha! I'd forgotten about them too, that boat trip was actually quite eventful.

Where the hell did you go on it?! Down some dodgy canal?!

i would like to agree with everything that has been said in previous posts ,what a great wknd had by all ,weather great ,performance by the team was superb especially in the heat. hotel was the best yet the air con was cranked up full tilt so when back in the room it was like being at home in november . i would just like to say in which other sport could you spend two evenings in a bar with your team and match officials and have a laugh and a joke ,not the game with the round ball thats why i love rugby league. hope to see a few more there next year, thanks again mark and the team and mr robert hicks for making the weekend the best one so far.

I can echo everything everyone has said. A brilliant weekend again (if a little warm for my taste - thank god for air conditioning and the walk in shower in our hotel room). I even took me coat off!!!!!!! Friday night in the Melting Pot with Tubby and the boys watching the Hull KR v Leeds game was awesome. Imagine doing that with the players of either Sheffield football team, no chance. We left at half 12 and it was still 22 celcius. Spent Saturday walking round sightseeing/getting lost, then, after a quick change of Eagles shirts, it was on the Metro to Barrierre de Paris (excuse the spelling) and a quick beer before going down to the ground. Like most people, I thought we might struggle with the heat, but the boys played really well and got us the win. I was so hot, I leaned on a barrier and nearly slid into a wall. Had a long chat to the players and coaching staff and a drink afterwards, then back into the centre of Toulouse about midnight, where we discovered it was 28 celcius. Sat in the shower with my jeans on when I got back!!!!!! Then Sunday, it was 37 by about midday, so we headed for the relative coolness of the airport. It was a bit early, but it was cool. Must've spent about 40 euros on water during the weekend. The one downside was the hour and a half delay to the homeward flight and having to pay again on the train from Bristol, apart from that, it was even better than last year, which I didn't think possible.

In a word, yes.

.....and the commentary was all in French which I suppose you'd expect in France but it was a recording and the guy never stopped for breath.

.....and the driver was Billy Connelly!

Also forgot to mention, I have a few spare 'programmes' from the game if anybody wants one.

What - Game On or La Programme Française ?

The same thing I gave you last year, a four page, A4 size thing. Bit of news, squad lists etc, all in French.

Put me down for one, then. Ta.

Will do.

I think the trip also showed the generosity of the Eagles supporters swapping various things such as baseball caps and a few youngsters walked away happily blowing kazoos.............those kids have probably been locked in their bedrooms since Saturday

If people wish to go next year who haven’t been before I suggest that we have a get together at a supporters meeting when next year’s fixtures are out and discuss the options available.

Without wanting to appear too boring there is indeed much more to Toulouse that the 23 hours 30 minutes a day partying if that’s not your thing. But for those who do then there are plenty of late night bars and cafes etc.

Good idea. Ill note it down.

As Hirsty and crew are on hols I have to confess I found my car radio tuned into Sheffield.

There was an interesting interview with woman about Brits abroad.

One interesting fact was that around 27,000 UK passports are lost or stolen each year, so we didn't do that bad

Well you can add Perpignan to the list of places that isn't as hot as Toulouse, it was also very windy. Kick off was put back to 20:40 to some reason, it was a good game which Crusaders edged 26-22 with a late try. Spoke to Jon Sharp before the game who, despite his Huddersfield connections, is a top bloke. It was the same carry on with tokens for beer, which was probably an intellectual step too far for the drunken Welsh people in attendance, who were nowhere near as loud as we were in Toulouse last week.

Think it was windy when we were there and peed it down en route from Barce.
It was still raining in the evening and we watched the Sky game inside a bar even though there were tellys outside.

They are both different in character - I think that Toulouse edges it as there is a lot more going off in the centre but would love a weekend in Perpignan with the Eagles.