Stade Mayol

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Stade Mayol is a multi-use stadium in Toulon, France. It is currently used mostly for rugby union matches and is the home stadium of RC Toulonnais. The stadium is able to hold 13,700 people. It is one of the few French stadiums to be embedded in the city and surrounded by high buildings. It was built at the foot of the Mont Faron, the hill on which Toulon is partly built, and overlooks the Toulon military harbour (La Rade) on the Mediterranean.

[edit] History

It is named after Félix Mayol, a very popular concert hall singer from Toulon who had succeded in Paris in the early 20. century. A true-blue city boy, he offered to buy a piece of land for the club on which the stadium would be built. And so he did. He gave his personal money and gave up the rights on some of his songs to raise the rest. The least that could be done was to give the place the name of its generous patron.

It was inaugurated on March 28, 1920 by the mayor of Toulon and Félix Mayol himself. A cross-country race was organised, as well as a football match between Stade Raphaëlois from Saint-Raphaël and the RC Toulon football team (4-0) and a rugby match between RCT and TOEC from Toulouse (3-3).

All Black and Wallaby tourists played matches there against regional South-East selections.

[edit] Fans

The atmosphere is famous for a specific song called Pilou pilou, created at the end of the 1940s by a club player, Marcel Bodrero, which describes the Toulon players as terrible primitive warriors coming down from the mountain towards the sea (exactly what Toulon's topography is). A cheerleader leads the chants and asks fans to answer and repeat the words. It generally comes up when players get on the pitch, then early in the game and also when the team's forwards, the club's historical forte, start to dominate

The lyrics (in brackets, the parts sung by the fans)

Ah ! Nous les terribles guerriers du Pilou-Pilou

(Pilou-Pilou !)

Qui descendons de la Montagne vers la Mer

(Pilou-Pilou !)

Avec nos femmes échevelées allaitant nos enfants

A l'ombre des grands cocotiers blancs

(Pilou-Pilou !)

Nous les terribles guerriers poussons notre terrible cri de guerre

(AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH !)

J'ai dit NOTRE TERRIBLE CRI DE GUERRE !

(AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH !)

Parce que TOULON

(ROUGE !)

Parce que TOULON

(NOIR !)

Parce que TOULON

(ROUGE ET NOIR !)

Approximate translation:

We are the ruthless Pilou-Pilou warriors

(Pilou-Pilou!)

Coming down from the mountain to the sea

(Pilou-Pilou!)

With our dishevelled women breastfeeding our children

Under the shade of the great white coconut trees

(Pilou-Pilou!)

We the ruthless warriors sing our ruthless warsong

(AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!)

I said our our RUTHLES WARSONG!

(AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!)

Because Tou-lon

(RED!)

Because Tou-lon

(BLACK!)

Because Tou-lon

(RED AND BLACK!)