A church and a basketball court in every town: Marianna Tolo settles into her new French club

And Canberra's Marianna Tolo can attest to the region's love of the game.

The 32-year-old has played 13 games for her French team Basket Landes in the Ligure Feminine de Basketball and EuroLeague since she signed a one-season deal with the French championship winning club in May.

Her new club is located in Mont-de-Marsan, in France's south on the coastline near the Spanish border. And the former Canberra Capitals stalwart is loving her new home.

"We actually get a lot of fans to every game. I think the stadium fits around 1800 people and it's basically sold out every game, which is great," she said.

"There's lots of different people who invest in the team, so it's a really good feeling and ambience around the city. The town itself is small, it's about 30,000 people, but people come from all around the region.

"Everyone's kind of involved and comes to the games ... it's a really big basketball area down in the south-west of France. They say in every town there's always a church and a basketball court."

MORE IN CANBERRA SPORT:

It's Tolo's first overseas stint since her 2018 season in Turkey, after she first entered the French league in 2012 for Pays d'Aix Basket 13, before making the move to Tango Bourges Basket.

Landes won the French championship last season and qualified for the EuroLeague, where they sit fifth in their group after six games with eight to go.

Her new team has dropped two games in their home league, sitting third on the ladder.

Tolo is basking in the chance to play against the best players in Europe and hopes to bring her knowledge to the Australian camp next year.

The Opals will face South Korea, Serbia and Brazil in the World Cup qualifiers in February. Although the side has already qualified as host of the 2022 event, they will use the event in Serbia as a chance to build their squad.

"It takes a bit of the stress off because we have qualified so it gives us a chance to play and try new things out, and iron out the creases as well," Tolo said.

"Serbia is the home team, so they'll be really, really tough to beat but it's great for us because it gives us that level of competition that we need. Leading into the Olympics, one of the problems was we didn't have any international competition for such a long time and that really hurt us in the end.

"We weren't used to playing with each other at such a high level and so this gives us that experience we need. Even though it's only three games, i's a great chance for us to get used to playing together, especially if there are any new players."

She still has her eye on the WNBL and her old team, with the Capitals due to kick off their campaign on December 5.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: