Well, not all here anyway, and that shouldn’t surprise anyone, should it?

I’m in one of these cheap unit-hotels in Clermont Ferrand, having a weekend away from home.

There is in fact a very good reason for this.

This evening FC Pionsat St Hilaire’s 1st XI have a night match at Ceyrat, way out the other side of Clermont-Ferrand.

And I can’t believe that I’ve never been to a Pionsat night match away from home.

Tomorrow, the 2nd XI have an away match early afternoon at Miremont, just outside the north side of the city.

Seeing as it’s almost 100kms back home and then back 80kms at lunchtime tomorrow, it was hardly worth going home. And a little break would do me a world of good too.

So just by way of a change, I set out this morning to visit all of the shops at Mozac, the big shopping centre outside Riom.

It’s nothing special compared to Montlucon, but it’s different and at least all of the shops are right next to each other and not scattered across the town.

My luck was well and truly in too. There’s a bankrupt-stock kind of shop there and I found exactly the wire netting that I need to make my bean and pea frames, after all this time of looking.

And I also found a set of three decent tyre levers. I only have small ones for things like wheelbarrows and pushbikes, nothing suitable for motorbikes and cars.

The NOZ though is much smaller but they did have a decent selection of DVDs and so I treated myself to 5 for these long winter nights. At €1:95 each it’s cheaper than the cinema.

At the football, FC Pionsat St Hilaire could only muster a scratch team – it’s not easy travelling all the way down to Ceyrat for a 20:00 kick-off if you’ve been working until 19:00.

As for the game, there is no denying that the Espoirs Ceyratois were technically a much better side.

However FC Pionsat St Hilaire rode their luck, especially with François brilliantly saving a penalty late in the game.

But the team hung on and the score ended up a lucky 2-2 draw. And they all count as we know.

What was even more interesting was that I was not the only supporter to have come to cheer on FCPSH. A couple from Riom who have a weekend cottage in Pionsat and who attend almost all of the home games were here too to follow the team.

This is becoming infectious, isn’t it?

Finding food was the next difficulty. I cant believe that even in Clermont-Ferrand everything closes at 22:30. I had to drive for miles until I found something.

Eventually though I did manage to persuade someone to rustle up a vegan pizza and now I’m sitting here and eating it.

Then I’m off to bed.