Craven Cottage Newsround

Hello!

We’re back from Paris and can now take the wheel from Brian, who must, by now, be knackered from all this driving.

Exciting days away though. I kept myself away from the internet so had no idea of any Fulham news, but thanks to the wonders of French Eurosport and Canal + I was able to watch a good deal of football.

People always ask us what we do in Paris (which is not to say that a lot of people are interested in my holidays, just that we go to Paris most years and this provokes questions), and in truth we never *do* much, we just *be*. So we flitted in and out of cafes, tried out various Italian restaurants (I know…) and made sure we visited the best crepe stand in the whole world every night by Saint-Germain metro station. In between we strolled around, looked at some things, got cold outside, got hot inside, and had a great break overall. We ate some amazing pastry type things (there are hundreds of indy bakeries in Paris, quite the change from England where it’s really Tesco, Sainsbury’s or Greggs, most of which aren’t great), really well made stuff by people who know what they’re doing. So we’re both a little bit fatter now.

I saw some great African Nations football, including our man Diomansy for Senegal. His goal in the opening game was replayed and he did that hand/ear celebration thing again, so I guess that it really has nothing to do with West Bromwich Albion after all. He also played in the 3-1 defeat by Angola, having a tidy enough hour on the right wing before being replaced by Henri Camara. His touch looked pretty good and his eye for a pass was quite impressive, so I’m starting to re-evaluate my thoughts.

My boys from Morocco had a shocker, losing to Guinea after beating Namibia 5-1, then being jobbed against Ghana in a defeat that consigned them to oblivion. In that game Chelsea’s Michael Essien scored a fantastic goal. He has shown himself to be a terrific footballer in these games.

As have others: the tournament has been fast, exciting and impressive. I’m glad that I’ve had a chance to watch it.

The other incident of note was on my first evening out there when I stepped in front of a bus which (luckily) emergency stopped a foot away from me. In England vehicles drive on the left, in Paris they drive on the right. So I looked right, hopped into the road, and nearly got into trouble as a result. This wasn’t any old near miss and I’m very lucky to be here. Look both ways!

Fulham are in action tonight and I think we’re expecting Hangeland and Andreasen to play. That’ll be good and I’m hoping the internet feed is working. I had hoped to go but my Eurostar train arrived in London after the coach had departed, so it’s a night at home for me. We’ll see what happens, but we must be optimistic, right?