Cadet Plateau and a Tsunami of Humanity

Another Saturday, another day of Falcon football . . .

Is it for sale?

I would look so good driving this French classic around Lyon or Camarillo!

I saw it on my walk to the stadium to meet up with our Cadet team for the ride to St-Étienne for a three-way plateau (scrimmage) with the Lyon Les Gones and the St-Étienne Giants.

Skateboard Parks and Graffiti

go hand-in-hand worldwide

We carpooled it for about an hour to find Les Gones and Giants warming up on . . .

. . . a Snowy Field?

The air temperature was -1ºC/30ºF, there was snow on the field and it was lightly snowing with flakes about the size of grains of salt. This was Falcon Weather at its finest!

Now I was really upset about the Bron sports authority's decision to not let us play our key Senior team game on Sunday.

As I write this, it is 9:00 a.m. on Sunday. The predicted temperature for our cancelled 2:00 p.m. kickoff is 1ºC/34ºF, it has not snowed since early Friday morning and, though overcast and threatening, we have had little rain since the game was postponed.

They should have let us play.

If France ever has their version of The Ice Bowl, they will play it in St-Étienne.

St-Étienne's Warm-up

Keeping warm trumped fashion color sense for these Giants linemen.

Speaking of Fashion Color Sense

 Les Gones vs. The Falcons

We scrimmaged them last Saturday in Bron to an epic 16-16 tie full of big plays. Les Gones had already scrimmaged the Giants while we were getting dressed.

RUN!

The field conditions called for just a few basic things. First, a heavy dose of the running game and ball security in the muddy slop.

The Falcons would control both opponents in these two areas today with a punishing, physical ground attack, a ball hawking defense and a turnover free offense.

Bootleg

 Getting Outside

 Did I mention the Muddy Slop

While all of our players and coaches were fired up about playing in these fun conditions, the St-Étienne field would be completely destroyed by the end of the day.

Maybe the Bron decision not to play on Sunday has some long range field maintenance merit.

 Bombs Away!

 A Hammer Hit and

Setting up a Block

 Dash for the "G"!!!

Mano-a-Mano

Our best player vs. Les Gones' best player, who will win . . .

 Gotcha!!!

Defensive coaches Fred "Papy" Bastiand and Steven Berthomier did a great job today in making good adjustments to help us get Les Gones' #21 under wraps all day long. He had dominated against us a week ago.

Now we're talking football!

Solid tackle 

 Good Arm Wrap

 Getting Nasty

 Power Catch

Huddle!

 Making a Cut

 Gone Again!

We played very well in beating Les Gones today 12-0 in a half of non-kicking scrimmage football. We are looking to be a very solid Cadet team with games counting after the Holiday break.

Now it was time to match up against a very large St-Étienne Giants squad.

On the Move!

The defense played well again as the Sun set and photography became an adventure in the gloaming.

 One-on-One on the Perimeter

 Moving Quickly

We pounded the rock on offense and swarmed well on defense in this final 24 minutes of the day to bring home a 22-0 victory in the nightcap of the plateau.

Coaches Adrien Ruel and Kelly McCoid did a great job adapting the offense to the conditions today, I was very proud of all of our coaches on this great afternoon of frozen football.

 Happy Cadet Falcons!!!

We got back to Lyon a little after 7:00 p.m., so I opted to head into town via bus and metro to see more of the Fête Des Lumières.

December 8th Candles near my bus

stop on Rue Christian Lacouture

This is the night when tradition calls for the Lyonnais to place candles in their windows to thank Mary for saving the city from the ravishes of the plague in the 1600s. This simple tradition would lead to today's lavish Festival of Lights.

I got off at the Hôtel de Ville metro stop with the intention of viewing to light spectacular at the Place des Terreaux with, it turned out, four million of my closest friends.

BIG MISTAKE!

I was trapped in a tsunami of humanity and we all just drifted along the rues of Lyon as the tide dictated. It was quite an impossible situation and I never even got close to entering the Place des Terreaux.

Instead, I found an eddy and was able to eventually work my way into a more gentle stream of people winding their way back to Vieux Lyon.

I now know what it feels like first hand to be in one of our QB Wedge plays. I kind of liked it . . . 

Nice Heart 

Oh, it changes colors

 Rue de la République's

Roman Tyca

Very Nice

 Place de la République

Le Roi des Dragons

Cool Fountain

Colline de Fourvière Hunt

These buildings along the Saône River were wonderfully lit.

Colline de Fourvière Colors

Colline de Fourvière Squares 

Candles in the Vieux Lyon

St-Paul Church

Fun Brass Band in the Vieux Lyon

The crowd went BONKERS when they played the theme from the old Hawaii Five-O television show.

Fire!

A religious parade with real torches rambled through the Vieux Lyon to honor Mary.

 Or maybe they were headed to

Dr. Frankenstein's Castle

Getting Artsy . . .

Very Artsy

It was a long day of football, light shows and noshing on more delicious street fare, in other words, it was another . . .

GREAT DAY IN FRANCE!!!

Still, HOME IN THREE MORE DAYS!