Today I finished booking my rail tickets and hotels for the next month. I used booking.com and the Accor Hotels website to find some okay deals. Marseille for the quarter finals was the worst. There were no easily findable hotels near the centre of town. Nantes was pretty hard as well booking.com only had one hotel left it would seem but I now have a roof over my head and travel plans for all of the matches I have tickets for.

So in the next month im going to get to know the insides of the Eurostar and the TGVs quite well. Beats flying though. Some of the airplane ticket prices were astronomical already even on the budget airlines.

My father is doing most of the world cup in a camper van. I would have joined him but my employers seem to want me to turn up to work.

Thomas Castaignède just predicted France to win by 10. Argentina will push France quite hard. I actually think Argentina will win but it will be close.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/6976080.stm

So France are in trouble at half time. France 9-17 Argentina. They havent looked that good as well. Although dad thinks they both look better than England.

I was right. Argentina won 17-12. Although they were playing with fire at the end. The french really can be dangerous at the death.

Currently sitting on a TGV between Paris and Nantes. Its really quite full. I was lucky on the eurostar as I got 2 seats to myself. The connection across Paris was a bit close. It is probably worth prebuying your Metro tickets at the eurostar terminal in london and knowing which metro line you want. In this case line 4 "the pink one" between Gare du Nord and Montparnasse. The walk from the tube to the train is quite long.
Hopefully i can find somewhere to watch tonights crunch match between France and Ireland. I suspect France will win.

Caught the last 20 minutes of this game in a bar full of french supporters. France looked awesome. Obviously the loss to Argentina was the kick in the arse they needed.

Missed the start since I was having a really nice dinner. Post to follow about that.

Yet to find hordes of England supporters. Perhaps they are all turning up tommorrow.

New zealand by lots i suspect. In a bar in Arles watching it. Had tartare du chef with bulls meat for dinner. Raw egg and all.

Another shock win today. Allez le blues. Makes our semi easier. Very tense match at the end. The french in the bar are very happy. As some frenchman told me after the loss to argentina "to be champions we will have to beat new zealand" just they had to do it in the quarters and they have. The country may almost forgive for losing against argenrtina now. South africa now have the best chance of winning the world cup.

Just got off the ferry at Boulounge speeding to Paris in the car. We managed to get 2 tickets off a kiwi in London for a not to inflated price. We need a third but were not to fussed. One of us will go and watch it at the eiffel tower.
Dad even managed to find a hotel about 2.5k from stade de france. So its all good. Now to pray for rain.

... And found another ticket almost instantly again at only 30% markup. Having another beer before we go hunting a cash machine since were down to our last rounds worth of euros.

The atmosphere is great here. England to win by 3. It will be a close low scoring game.

Good try by lewsey to start. Weve held them back since. Neither team has taken control yet. Still a tight match. The england fans are a bit quiet. Then again all the aussies and kiwis here are shouting for france as well.

Excuse my french but Fuck Me! What a result. What a game. So tense at the end. Four more years! At least if we lose the title now we do so in the final.

Argentina to win. Im so pissed while doing a circle line pub crawl.