Stade de France is the national stadium of France, located in the northern commune of Saint-Denis and opened on January 28th 1998 for a football international between France and Spain with Zenedine Zidane scoring the first ever goal in the stadium.
Talks about construction a stadium to hold over 80,000 spectators all under cover had begun in 1992 after France was awarded the 1998 football World Cup. Planning permission was granted, with the selected manufacturers; Bouygues, Dumez, and SGE starting work in May 1995.
The design of the stadium meant that it could accommodate an athletics track that could then be covered by automatic retractable seating in the lower tier so that spectators were not left a long way from the pitch.
It was constructed with a similar design to the one used at Stadium Australia in Sydney, and one that those in charge of the construction of the Olympic Stadium in London decided not to follow.
The construction ran to time, during which the arena was referred to as Grand Stade. On the proposal of French football legend the stadium was given the title Stade de France.
The stadium is home to both the French national football and rugby union teams. The rugby side’s first game was a 24-17 win against England in the Six Nations Championship in February 1998.
Stade de France hosted nine matches during the 1998 World Cup, including Brazil’s 2-1 win over Scotland in the opening match and the final, when the host country defeated Brazil 3-0 in front of 80,000 fanatical fans.
The stadium became home to the final of football’s national knock out competition; Le Coupe de France as well as staging several rugby games of Paris club Stade Francais. Concerts also became a staple diet in the arena.
Acts such as The Rolling Stones, Johnny Hallyday, Tina Turner, AC/DC, Bruce Springsteen, U2, George Michael, The Police, Madonna, Prince, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Metallica, Muse and Depeche Mode have all featured at Stade de France.
The Stade de France hosted the 2000 Champions League final when Real Madrid defeated Valencia 3-0 before hosting the World Athletics Championships of 2003. The stadium hosted six matches in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup.
The Champions League final returned in 2006 as FC Barcelona defeated Arsenal. Seven matches were held at Stade de France in the 2007 Rugby World Cup; including the final in which South Africa defeated England 15-6.
The stadium continued without a club side as full time tenants. Stade Francais played a few more games attracting huge crowds but Paris Saint Germain preferred to stay at Parc des Princes. Business and housing development continued in the surrounds to the stadium.
On Friday 13th November 2015 the city of Paris was victim of a series of co-ordinated terrorist attacks, with the Stade de France being one of the venues targeted while hosting the friendly football international between France and Germany.
French President Hollande was inside the stadium. A terrorist was unable to gain access past the turnstiles but detonated a suicide vest killing himself and an innocent bystander. The game was abandoned as frightened spectators took the pitch to protect themselves.
The UEFA Euro 2016 tournament saw eight matches being staged at Stade de France. Games included the tournament opener between France and Romania and the final in which Portugal defeated France in extra time.
My visit
Tuesday 7th February 2017
Although I’d done my fair share of travelling over the years, I’d never been to Paris until January 2017; yet I found myself there for the second time in the matter of a few weeks. I loved the place so much on my first brief visit, I immediately booked up again.
On the first occasion I’d been restricted to watching a game down in Auxerre and taking a brief visit to Red Star’s atmospheric Stade Bauer. This time was far more fulfilling on the football front.
The previous evening I’d watch Red Star playing in exile at Stade Jean Bouin as their traditional home wasn’t up to the grading requirements of the second tier, while later in the evening I was heading to Parc des Princes for a PSG game.
Before that, I wanted to have a look at the stadium I’d seen on TV during many memorable occasions. While there were no matches during my stay, I figured a stadium tour was the next best thing.
I’d bought my €xxx ticket online a couple of weeks earlier, so armed with the receipt I took a train from Gare du Nord to Gare du Stade de France St Denis. The fifteen minute walk from there took me through a continually growing development.
The main reception area was round the far side of the stadium which backed onto Avenue Jules Rimet. A friendly security guard gave me admission next to the memorial to the attack of 2015. I was directed to the stadium shop.
Another friendly assistant gave me my ticket for the tour and explained that I was a little early but I was free to use any of the facilities and to go and view an exhibition and museum just along the hall from where my guide would collect me.
There were some really good exhibits to check out; many of which brought back some good memories from watching the great stars on TV back at home in the UK. After around twenty minutes a guide appeared.
He was a fine multilingual chap, who preferred rugby to football, who was definitely very proud to be French; especially from a culinary aspect, but best of all he knew his stuff about the subject he was advising.
The tour party consisted of a father and son from Peru as well as me, so our guide translated in English and what he said was basic Spanish. The Peruvians seemed to understand. They also smiled a lot.
Monsieur taking us round asked where did I come from in England? When I replied London, he said no. He meant where was I brought up? When I replied Scarborough, he said he thought that was the case. Surely it was a case of him being polite or a show off? It turned into a remarkable coincidence.
A female relative of his had taken care of a stranded British soldier during the War; nursed him back to health and fallen in love. They married and moved to Hull, from where their daughter moved to Scarborough in later years. What a small world!
The tour contained the usual box ticks of other such packages. We went to the VIP areas, the changing rooms, security areas and the like, although to be fare the Stade de France did have some features that not every stadium could boast.
We were shown the stadium hospital, warm up rooms, where and how the retractable seating worked as well as our man pointing out that the corporate boxes were better in this arena because of the world class food and drink that were served to patrons.
I thought that my good pal Alain Le Ker was a one off when singing the praises of everything connected to his homeland, but he had a competitor here!
The Peruvians were really friendly. The old boy seemed delighted when I mentioned the name of Hector Chumpitaz; an iconic defender for Peru when I was growing up and Peru was the most sought after Subbuteo team. We had our photos taken together.
The tour came to an end and we headed our different ways. It had been one of the better ones I’d been on. The friendliness shown by the hosts continued to impress, and contradicted some warnings about how they weren’t the most welcoming.
I headed off via Avenue Henri Delauney, which backed onto a practise athletic track and football pitch before taking a Metro to the Guy Môquet stop where I alighted and enjoyed a livener at Le Bar Belge.
A good walk uphill around Monmartre, the area I had really taken to on my couple of visits built up a healthy appetite before I enjoyed a superb Couscous Royale for lunch in a lovely Café Du Théâtre. Vive la France!
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