May 18, 2011

Lille Olympique Sporting Club

Saturday night was the big game. Le LOSC (Lille Olympique Sporting Club – Lille’s football team) played PSG (Paris Saint Germain) for the Coup de France.

FBF and I met up with a group of friends at a bar that had a projector and giant screen in order to watch le match.

The game remained zero - zero until the last minute, when, finally, Lille scored! Suddenly everybody was jumping up and down, shouting, and spilling beer.

Lille won the game, one to zero, and as soon as the game was over, everybody took to the streets to celebrate.


Just after le match, right outside our bar, people were singing, cars were honking, and everybody was celebrating.


After celebrating in front of our bar, we decided to head over to La Grande Place. Everywhere we walked, we encountered our fellow Lillois waving le LOSC flags, singing victory songs, and cheering.


At La Grande Place.


We walked in a giant circle, ending up where we had started. Cars were trying to pass, but finding it a rather difficult task with all the pedestrians in the street.

Suddenly, there was a police car in front of us. They weren't as patient as their fellow drivers, and within a minute of being blocked in the street, rolled down their window and stuck a weird black object out of it.

Suddenly FBF grabbed my hand and started pulling me away. Seconds later, wet mousse shot out of the police car.

Immediately my nose started to burn and I started coughing. We had been sprayed with anti-riot chemicals.

After that, we all parted ways back to our respective houses. But even being attacked by the police couldn't dampen the spirit of the city after our victory. I continued to hear cars honking and people cheering into the wee hours of the morning.

Allez Lille O.S.C.
Allez Lillois, allez!

3 comments:

  1. WOW! I can't imagine being sprayed with anti-riot chemicals just for celebrating. The police must have been worried it would have gotten out of hand. Great victory for Lille!

    Kris

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gotta love European street soccer celebrations. But jeez oh pete, you get sprayed?? Yikes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kris: I know! I was surprised, but then again I am often surprised by the police power in France. It was a great night nevertheless!

    Kaley: Yeah it was pretty awesome until we got sprayed! I was definitely not expecting that, but it was still a great night.

    ReplyDelete

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