The US Fall Nationals took place in San Francisco, November 28 to December 8th. Want to know everything about the competition ? Please go to this summary.

But this NABC was a bit more for BBO team…

Quand San Francisco s’embrume (When San Francisco is enveloped in mist)…
Quand San Francisco s’allume (When San Francisco lights up)

Well, if I use words coming from the wonderful song of our French singer Maxime Le Forestier called “San Francisco”, that’s because we can sum up the experience like that: French team @SF!

Yohan, Alexandre, Mokhtar, Benoit, Olivier and I, Alexandra came from North of France to San Francisco to meet Barry and Uday and also to see for the first time a huge live bridge tournament! Impressive…

But wait, let me tell you the whole story…

Day 1: Gosh, we are all so tired but at the same time so happy to be there. It’s almost 5PM when we arrive at the hotel. But you can guess that in our minds and our bodies, it’s 2AM (9 hours jetlag). Hard to keep our eyes open 🙂 We just want one thing: FOOD haha. We ate some fries, chips and chicken with a fresh beer. Uday came to hang out with us and meet people he hadn’t met yet. Yohan, Alex, Mokhtar, Ben and I tried to find a warm place to grab a coffee but we ended up in a torrential rain! Fun but so cold!!! No crazy evening that night, we’re all looking forward to finding our cozy beds.

Day 2: After a good rest, we’re ready to work together! And ready to experience San Francisco… You don’t know what I’m talking about? Wait for it… We first walked on Pier 39… admired the view and the sea. So beautiful. Then we tried for the first time to eat crabs! I can say everyone loved it, definitely. (Slide to see the pictures!)

Day 3: Team work of course (should I keep repeating that ;-)) and a short walk in San Francisco, but this was not a random day. This was Thanksgiving Day: really quiet in the evening, lots of places were closed, lots of people were at home with their family of course. We took the opportunity to enjoy the magnificent view of San Francisco and meet the bridge players who were all arriving that evening.

Day 4: D Day! Fall NABC is finally starting! The hotel is crowded, there is such an atmosphere… We cheered for Uday and his team as well as for Jérôme Rombaut’s team… Time to play bridge…!

Day 5 (and last day): Last day for the team… Taking pictures of the playing area, meeting players, we tried to do all we could to make the most out of this trip! We kept some time for fun of course! We could not really leave San Francisco without seeing the “Castro” neighborhood, right? Even under a heavy rain!

Do you remember I love to sing? What better way to end our stay than with a wild karaoke? 😉