Le Foot

One thing I was keen to do – health permitting – was to watch the local football team. When I was younger and lived in London I went along to every Arsenal home game and the occasional away game too.

Top-flight football in England has been out of my price range for at least 15 years and my health problems haven’t made it easy for me to travel to London. So I’ve had to survive on a trip or two to Highbury every season or so.

Living in Caen is great for football. Tickets start at around €11 a match and it is easy to get a bus to and from the stadium. In fact the stadium is an easy walk, if I feel like it.

The team itself plays fast attacking football with a bit of an English flavour – the coach, Frank Dumas, is a great admirer of English football and played briefly for Newcastle.

The home games are lively on the pitch, with far more goals than the average French first division game delivers. Their home form is less impressive – I went to one local derby and their performance was appalling, as usual.

The terraces are lively too. Each football club has at least one supporters group who make banners and flags and organise the chanting – creating a far better atmosphere in the ground than at most English matches.

It has been quite easy to get to know people at the football. I got in contact with the supporters group and they were surprised and intrigued that an English football fan wanted to come and support SM Caen.

I have been welcomed and introduced to people and through an appalling mixture of bad English and even worse French, we communicate. I’ve found out more about France, French life and Norman customs than I would have done any other way.

Away from the football I have found that people don’t want to speak bad English to me and don’t particularly want to hear my bad French. This makes communication short and shallow.

However, with football fans we have something in common – football – and a need to talk about it and so my linguistic failings are forgiven, at least partially. Each time I am reminded to work hard on speaking better.