Le Bridge

Having done our homework on French bidding, cards, language, etc. we were keen to play bridge in France. There were were several bridge clubs within an hour's drive from my brother's village, but the largest one, and the one with the best schedule was in Châteauroux. The people at the club were friendly, particularly one lady who had lived in the US and was therefore easy to talk to (in English). We were a little taken aback by their announcement that we would have to play under pseudonyms since we didn't have FFB licenses. In the end we did end up seeing our names in print although, as expected, the official results on the web show us as "Joueur inconnu" gaining 105 points.

Despite the strange cards (1, R, D, and V, etc.) and little things like South (me) having to do the scoring (more complicated than it sounds since we had to enter such things as the opening lead, not to mention the fact that 4C is four hearts, while four clubs is 4T), we managed 56% and second in our direction (the best place to be when guests in a strange club). We might have won if we had stopped after 8 rounds but we got a little tired -- and our luck ran out somewhat -- in the last round. All of our explanations of bids and so on were conducted in French and there were never any problems. Bidding boxes, albeit strange ones, were used so that bidding was never an issue.

I would like to have shown a hand from the session (27 boards, by the way) that illustrated perhaps a brilliant play based on mistaking jacks for kings (like the Rueful Rabbit does in the Victor Mollo stories) but there was nothing like that.

The standard of play was about what you'd expect in a club game away from the big city. A few good players but mainly people looking for a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. There was a degree more seriousness perhaps than we are used to. All in all a very enjoyable afternoon and we would heartily recommend it.

Next blog: Travel Trials