THE small town of Dinard in Brittany appears to have taken Wales to its heart judging by the welcome we have received over the past few days.
Welsh flags are on display wherever you look as well as banners proclaiming ‘Bienvenue au Pays de Galles’ and the population of just over 10,000 seem happy to have the players in their midst – especially a certain Real Madrid superstar.
Gareth Bale was mobbed by the 700 schoolchildren who were invited to watch the squad training this morning and he may well have set a new record for the number of selfies posed for in a 20-minute period.
Hopefully he didn’t do too much damage to his back as he stooped down again and again to pose with the excited youngsters.
Manager Chris Coleman is also in a relaxed and playful mood ahead of Saturday’s Euro 2016 opener against Slovakia in Bordeaux.
He even found time during training to poke fun at Group B opponents England.
It came after Roy Hodgson's assistant Ray Lewington was pictured yesterday clutching what appeared to be a teamsheet under his arm in full view of watching photographers.
National media poured over the formation and selections it revealed while criticising England for the lapse.
In response Coleman, complete with a huge grin on his face, today posed with a clipboard that revealed a team containing the likes of Pele, Diego Maradona, George Best and Bobby Moore.
Media representatives are being well looked after in the impressive media centre at the state-of-the-art training complex.
It’s all a lot less stressful than my journey from Newport to Portsmouth on Monday to catch the ferry to France.
Suffering a clutch failure on the A34 was not the best start to the Euro adventure and at one point I did fear I may miss the boat.
Thankfully the AA got me back on the road again but I have Googled the French for ‘clutch’ just in case. It translates as ‘embrayage’ in case you ever need it.
Hopefully the incident was not an omen for Wales’ chances over the next few weeks.
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