We got wind that there was a ice hockey match between two local teams.
This appealed to those of us who were sporting mad and/or those who were just damn curious.
In the end there were four of us who walked to the centre of town where the ice hockey rink was situated. The rink was located on the bottom floor of the 'Fun House' entertainment complex. 
It was set up like a local footy match run by the local residents.
We were charged 6.00 Euros each for entry.
After quizzing the lady at the ticket table and getting some stilted answers I discovered the local team was playing in tops with purple sleeves.
Excitedly we sat down on the wooden seats. It was very cold in the stadium and I was extremely glad I'd put on thermal long johns and my ski jacket. Not to mention my thick snow gloves.
Before the match began a machine was brought out of it's little cubby hole and began making circles on the iced pitch.
.
What it was doing was spraying a thin layer of water onto the ice and then scraping it so that the surface was completely even.
A nervous tension rippled through the crowd as the anticipation built up.
Finally, the teams came onto the pitch and the game began.
Now only one of our gang knew the rules so she obligingly helped us understand.
It was even more intriguing as none of us spoke French and all the information was in French. This posed a particular challenge as there were various announcements but we didn't know what they were saying. We guessed it was something like 'No 8 just scored the goal for X team' or 'Opps No. X has just been sent off for a foul'.
Our guide told us that Ice hockey has 3 sets of 20 minutes however, we were reliably told that it would take 2 hours to watch. This puzzled us as the numbers didn't add up. It was only when we discovered that when there was a dispute or goal the clock was stopped until all of the players were in exactly the right position.
This was different to AFL which added 'extra time' at the end of the game for such instances.
At the conclusion of the first set (of 20 mins) we noticed all the spectators wondering around with alcohol. Like England, you can buy beer, etc and drink whilst watching the game. There was no limit and many spectators were sloshed by the end of the match.
We also noted that the players were extremely friendly with not only the spectators but also the other team whilst off the pitch. Though on the pitch they all played as if this was the final of the world championships.
During the second set a group of 5 young English people sat down not 5 rows away from us. They were already pissed and brought in a traffic cone (goodness knows where they got this from). One of the boys proceeded to heckle the teams and used the traffic cone as a speaker.
Each of our group cringed at this behaviour and were worried that if trouble happened we'd be caught up in it as we were 'English' (we were all Australian's but spoke English).
After 10mins of this heckling a couple of French staff approached the group and suggested that they stop their behaviour or they'd get kicked out. I personally think that they also threatened a night in the local lock up.
The match itself was quite exciting as the lead constantly changed which added to the excitement.
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Just minutes before the end of the game two players began to fight. They began by ripping off their gloves and throwing them onto the ground. Then they threw a couple of punches before trying to rip of each other's shirts (over their heads to pin their arms).
The fight only lasted moments and I got a picture of the guys rolling on the ground before the umpires were able to stop it.
Finally the match began again.
At the end of the match the home team had won.
Cheers went up from the crowd and everyone began pouring out of the stadium.
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We made our way back to the hotel thoroughly happy with our nights entertainment.