“I’ll tell you if Mbappé or Griezmann come for a drink. » At the terrace of Vero Gusto, a café on the main street Thursday morning in Bad Lippsringe, no trace of French internationals. Just a few regular retirees and blue, white and red balloons, a clear sign of something unusual. Less than 400 meters away, the 25 players of the French team and the twenty members of the staff and the Federation present in Germany took up their quarters the day before. They will stay there at least until June 26 in the worst case and until July 15 in the best case: a victory at the Euro, which begins this Friday with the Germany – Scotland match.
After the forest of Istra (Russia) at the 2018 World Cup and the palace of Doha (Qatar) in 2022, after the hotels partitioned off for Covid in the scorching atmosphere of Budapest and Bucharest at Euro 2021, it is this dormitory town of 15,000 inhabitants that the Tricolores have chosen as their base, close to Dortmund (an hour and 15 minutes’ drive) and Düsseldorf (2 hours) where they will play two of their three group matches. An in-between, with a 4-star spa hotel (the Best Western Premier Park) without dripping luxury but spacious and in the heart of a green lung, 10 kilometers north of Paderborn, the district capital. If the area is more famous for its springs and cures than its entertainment, it has pulled out all the stops for the occasion. In front of the town hall, each window of which is decorated with the flag of a Euro participant, a banner “Welcome the Blues” launched by the black-headed sheep symbol of this region of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Activities for a month
The tricolor banners were displayed in the arteries of the pedestrian center, the businesses followed with flags and signs in their windows when the bar proudly announced that it offered Lillet as an alternative to beer. On the tarpaulin hiding the Hôtel des Bleus from prying eyes sits a… Franco-German lexicon published by the tourist office – with crucial expressions like “the waffle is delicious”, “oh, a rabbit” or “it’s so calm here” – and the program of concerts organized every Thursday (at… 6 p.m.) during the Euro. The highlight of the show is a sand statue of Kylian Mbappé erected in front of the hotel entrance. It has to be earned: to access it, you have to pay the 9 euros entrance fee to the Gartenschau, a landscaped garden which hosts works. “The mayor went to the French embassy in Berlin to prepare,” says Katrin, vice-president of the Paderborn French association whose parents live… in Bordeaux.
This Franco-German, her husband and her children are among the 4,000 people who were able to attend the training which opened this Thursday at the Home Deluxe Arena, home of the club from the city of 140,000 inhabitants which plays in Bundesliga 2. L UEFA had placed the gauge at… 500 maximum but the FFF pushed for an exemption. The municipality took care of the rest, inviting the French community – professors, particularly at the University; employees of the IT company Nixdorf-Siemens, the city’s largest private employer – and football schools. In the stands, jerseys from… Paris SG (many), OM and the Blues. Mbappé chanted above all: spared for the session, the French captain played the game by going out to greet the public, then coming to take photos with the disabled people at grass level.
Wake up “Paderboring”
France’s “superstar”, as the regional newspaper Weltfäliches Bolkstatt puts it, is the number one attraction. And too bad if some would have liked the whole group to come and greet them more closely, just as the children who came to welcome the delegation on the airport tarmac on Wednesday would have liked to leave with selfies.
The arrival maintains the French link of Paderborn, where Charlemagne built a castle and where a street is called Le Mans: the two towns have been twinned since… the year 836 and the arrival of the relics from the Sarthe bishopric. For the occasion, for a month, the cathedral will be illuminated every evening by the colors of the French flag which also sits on the town hall and the buses. The Blues are saluted on posters.
Like every year, the French association of Paderborn will organize a music festival on June 21, a little special because there will be a broadcast on the big screen of the Blues match against the Netherlands. With the aim of debunking the nickname “Paderboring” (Pader boring in English, Editor’s note) and to cheer up the Westphalians who are known to be closed-minded. “Paderborn, I love you my city; sometimes stubborn but always warm, you are like me” written on the front of the stand the Paderborn 07 club. “At least we have two chances to win” smiles Katrin. With the dream of an ideal final.
