da betobet： Gone are the days when the average stag party started at the pub and finished, if you made it that far, at the nearest Indian restaurant. Nowadays, stag parties tend to be spread out over several days and take in rather more exotic locations than The Red Lion or The Prince of Wales.
da bwin： In recent times, British football fans have found that having a stag party in a foreign country offers the chance to sample the local, er, culture and take in a match at the same time. Result!
And where better to go than France? Getting there from the U.K. is easy (and fairly cheap), the food and drink is excellent and there’s a vibrant nightlife in the cities. The football is pretty good, too, with both Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco reaching the quarter-finals of the 2014-15 Champions League.
Monaco has its attractions, but it’s Paris that tops our league for footballing stag parties.
Paris is, of course, home to Paris Saint-Germain, current French champions and conquerors of Chelsea in last season’s Champions League. PSG’s home ties are played at the Parc Des Princes in the city’s upmarket 16th arrondissement, within easy walking distance of Metro lines 9 and 10.
The Parc Des Princes is a great place to watch football: its layout causes sound to reverberate all around the ground and makes for a terrific atmosphere, especially when PSG’s great rivals, Olympique de Marseille, come to town.
There’s usually a healthy demand for tickets, so it’s best to purchase them in advance via PSG’s online booking service. Prices vary from match to match and according to seat availability. Stadium tours were previously available but have been suspended while renovation works are carried out in advance of Euro 2016.
Paris is well-known for its cafe society, but there are some excellent bars to be found as well. The Auld Alliance on the Rue Francois Mirond is a Scottish pub in Paris. It’s centrally located, happy to welcome football fans and is open until 2.00 a.m. every day. Hot snacks are served on weekday evenings and throughout the day on weekends, but if you’ve not sampled it before then the house speciality of haggis is perhaps best left for another visit.
Alternatively (or, better still, additionally), French Flair is a rugby-themed pub situated near to the world-famous Moulin Rouge. Like the Auld Alliance, it’s open until 2.00 a.m. and offers a wide selection of draught beers. Do bear in mind, though, that some continental beers are a little stronger than those brewed in the U.K.
As in most cities, some of the best watering holes can be found by straying a short distance off the main tourist thoroughfares. These establishments tend to score highly on atmosphere as well as being a little less hard on the wallet. Be careful, though, not to stray too far from the city centre – some suburban areas of Paris can be less than inviting.
There’s more to Paris, of course, than a good football team and some decent boozers. For instance, there are several world-famous museums in the city centre, including the Louvre and the Musée D’Orsay. The Museum of Air and Space is a bit further afield, at Paris-Le Bourget airport, but where else are you going to find two Concordes in the same room?
Taking a trip down the Seine (where you might see a quarter scale replica of the Statue of Liberty, built three years after the original) or up the Eiffel Tower (where you might see, well, pretty much the whole of Paris) is recommended.
There are plenty of nightclubs, including a cluster in the Montmatre area, but their reputations can be on the patchy side – just like the ones here in Blighty! If cabaret is your thing – or you think it might be – then Paris has much to offer, including the famous Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergere.
Fans of horse racing are also well catered for. The renowned Longchamp racecourse is situated at the Bois De Boulogne, about two miles from the Parc Des Princes, and there’s another fine racecourse at the pretty town of Chantilly, less than 30 minutes by train from Paris. Get your timings right and you may be able to combine a day at the football with a day at the races.
Finding a good place to eat in Paris is almost laughably easy. If you’re staying in central Paris, the area surrounding the Boulevard Saint Michel (known as the Latin Quarter) is home to several good restaurants that won’t empty your wallet. It all comes down to whatever takes your fancy.
And that only leaves one thing to consider: where to stay? As with food, there’s a great selection of hotels in Paris, as well as hostels for those on a budget. We’d suggest that you look carefully at location (central Paris is best, if more expensive) and use a website like TripAdvisor for information about quality. Alternatively, if you want to keep the group together, or have a base for pre match beers, renting an apartment might be more convenient.
All that now leaves is for us to say: mangetout, mangetout! Well, we learned our French from the same Citröen brochure as Del Boy Trotter…