I
didn’t know how booking a 24 hour Paris football trip would be so stressful, ah
oui I should have paid more attention to my French lessons. As we were only
going to the capital for one night we couldn’t book flights or the hotel until
the kick off was announced (due to the TV rights the games could have been on a
Friday night, Saturday or a Sunday afternoon).I was constantly checking the
Paris Saint-German website and Ligue 1 app and once the kick off time was
announced, the stress continued.
Who
shall I book the tickets with? Direct with the club via their French website or
via the official seller English speaking Viagogo easier to understand but as
terrible online reviews. I did try to book tickets with Guardiantickets.co.uk
(it was Viagogo in disguise) and after picking my tickets I got to the delivery
page and it said they wouldn’t post the tickets I would have to arrange a pick
up place with the seller or they could post them to a French address – too
fishy for me so with Google Translate I booked the tickets for Saturday’s PSG v
Nancy game directly with the football club. Tickets ranged from 40€ - 100€, I
paid 60€ for a ticket in the middle tier (bleu bas) of the Présidentielle stand
and if that stand was good enough for Mrs Beckham it was good enough for me.
10
out of 10 to Paris Saint-Germain for their customer service (6 out of 10
for my bad French emails to them). I was unsure if they would post the tickets
to a non-French address or if I would have to collect them from the ticket
office on the day. They reassured me that they posted the tickets to my English
address 10 days before the match and it I didn’t receive they would issue
duplicates on match day if I had I.D and the ticket reference number. Luckily
my tickets did arrive so Bravo billetterie@psg.fr !
Flights
from Birmingham to Paris Charles de Galle were £121 return with Air France
(flew with Flybe), 9.50€ for a train/metro pass and the small and modern
Holiday Inn Auteuil (5 minutes’ walk from the Stadium and 2 minutes from the
Porte de St Cloud metro stop) was 100€ for one night. Room 40 is an oven when
the sun is shining. The hotel rate could have been a little cheaper if I had
booked with these hotel comparison websites but after our London overbooking
experience last month I booked direct with the hotel. Less stress is priceless
and because of our early morning flight and that we were too tired to take
public transport, the hotel booked our taxi back to the airport for Sunday
morning (30m minutes journey for 65€).
Becks warming up
Paris Saint-Germain maybe the
richest club in the world but as a long way to go before they are in the same
league as Manchester United, the Milans, Real Madrid Barcelona and Bayern
Munich. Apart from playing better – the first half Paris was terrible and their
star player Ibrahimovic didn’t show his brilliance until an hour into the game
– maybe they could build on their merchandising. The shop at Parc des Princes
was very small compared to Premiership clubs and Beckham shirts at 110€ each
(70€ for a shirt without a name) aren’t going to pay all his bills. No
programmes, no much choice of food, just hot dogs and crisps and drinks on
offer were fizzy, water or non –alcohol beer, much to my sister’s disgust. I
dragged her around Paris on the dirty Metro and all she wanted was a beer and
ended up with France’s answer to Shandy Bass. Just like football there are
missed chances at the Parc des Princes so to PSG, I’m offering my ideas on
football marketing to you, my wages are only 10% a year of Beckham’s weekly
pay.
David
Beckham came on for the last 15 minutes, easing my sister alcoholic cold turkey
and for all those fellow Becks followers his contract is only until the end of
this season, so book up quick if you are going for a long weekend but if you
going just for the match remember to wait until the kick off time as been
announced just in case they change the day to show the game on TV.
March 30 Paris Saint Germain v Montpellier
April 21 Paris
Saint Germain v Nice
May 4 Paris Saint Germain v
Valenciennes
May 18 Paris
Saint Germain v Brest.
