The Spacious and Gracious team bring you the first in an occasional series of reviews of the best bars in Folkestone to watch football in.

One of us being a West Ham fan, and the other, a Liverpool supporter, we chose “The Frenchman”, (no longer ‘happy’), as the venue in which to enjoy/suffer the match on Saturday.

The pub exterior

There were not too many people in the pub, when we arrived, so the choice of seating position was ours, but the lay-out of the 6 screens in relation to comfortable seating areas, had us indecisive for a while. (There is a large screen, but we found it lacking in clarity, compared to the smaller screens, but this was probably due to the bright sunlight coming through the windows, it being a glorious late summer afternoon).

The view from our seats.

The pool table to our right, with a super polished floor beneath.

We found the atmosphere to be welcoming and unintimidating. The interior was well lit, clean and freshly and subtley decorated. The 2 areas of wooden floors were the shiniest examples either of us can remember seeing. There is also a newly established outside seating area.

Our screen for the match, and the pub dartboard.

Being ale drinkers, we can’t score the pub highly for its range of beer, as there was only one (Shephard Neame) ale available on the day, but had we been lager drinkers, we would have been well served.

Overall rating : Pretty good.