Our man in the van: Campsite tales tell of Paris great escapes

Greetings from beautiful Bordeaux, where the buzz around the city was far more concerned with the fortunes of “les garçons en bleu” than the Boys in Green, with the hosts’ second group game taking place last night.

The city is easily accessible from our base in Arcachon via the train — though we have taken careful note of the last connection home — lest we end up like the group we met who missed it the other night and forked out €195 for their taxi home. Ouch!

Trains leave Arcachon every hour, take another hour to get to Bordeaux, and the stadium is a tram and bus away from the city’s main station.

All that, and the requirement to get to the stadium in good time for kick-off means we’ll have a relatively early start on Saturday — if we’re lucky enough to get tickets.

Like many here, we’ve travelled in hope rather than expectation that we will savour the atmosphere of the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux first hand.

Still, if our efforts to secure tickets are unsuccessful, there are worse places to watch a game than the fanzone in the Esplanade des Quinconces.

Second only to the fanzone in the centre of Paris in terms of capacity, the wide open square and big screen is complimented with five-a-side pitches and canopy-covered bars on decking.

Initially, the small crowd in attendance yesterday afternoon were more concerned with the matches among supporters of rival countries than the first game on the big screen between Romania and Switzerland, but as Bordeaux businesses closed up a steady stream of locals filed in to secure a decent vantage point for France’s clash with Albania.

Back in Arcachon, the campsite bars are full at night with heroes recalling their epic escapes from the traffic nightmares in Paris and long journeys south.

Spare a thought for the poor souls who, having spent a full day travelling to get here, didn’t make it by the 10pm cut off time for check in and had to set up outside the campsite until the following morning.

Tales have also been swapped of some of the bangs and scrapes inflicted on campervans in transit — a clipped bus wing mirror now seems small change compared to some of the things that will have to be explained when sheepish groups return their vehicles to rental agencies in the coming days and weeks.