Paris

Here are some pictures of Tennis Club de Pontois, a cool clay court club where my latest tournament has been. Hey everyone, Marc reporting in. So Colin is back in California and I'm living in a small apartment in the 14thème of Paris to play tournaments in and around the city. It's sad that our camping adventure through Normandie and the Langdouc region has come to an end, but I'm excited about Paris and it's defenitely nice to be settled in one place. My apartment is shared with 4 other students, all going to school in Paris. The apartment is really small and the building was built in the 1800's so it has a weird funky feel to it. The location is great though; it's in the Latin Quarter and right on a key metro line that lets me get to the tournaments. Colin stayed here for a few night before flying home and we had a great first night out in the city with my new housemates.

I just finished my first tournament at the Tennis Club du Pontois, about an hour comute out of the city from my apartment. Colin's last week in France was pretty hectic and included a couple nights out in Montpellier with our tennis friend Demaz, sleeping on the beach, getting woken up by German Shepard police dogs, and surviving a night on the street in Montpellier after Colin's attemt at booking a hostel at a McDonald's cafe failed. So it was nice to turn my attention back to tennis and getting ready for the Pontois Open. The tournament was played on both indoor and outdoor red clay (the terra battu). After a couple days of solid practice with some english guys who were also playing the tournament I felt ready to go. In my first match I ended up playing Pete, one of my new British friends. The match was gritty; Pete hit a high topspin forehand and had a really good chip backhand and would give up very very few errors. This, combined with the slow indoor clay, made for a tough opponent and I realized I could be in for the long haul. After three hours of sliding side to side and getting covered with dusty indoor clay, I finally won 5-7, 6-4, 6-3. On to the quarterfinals and 50€ richer! A hard earned 50€ at that.

In the quarterfinals I lost 4 and 1 to a good french guy ranked 0. His rafa style was just too much for me on the terra battu. Give me a bit more practice on the dirt and maybe i'll take him next time. I was happy to be taking home prize money from my first terra battu tourny though!!

The next night the three english guys from the tournament (including the one I beat) called me up to go out with them in Paris. I met them at their friend's apartment. These guys were crazy!!! The guy I had beaten the other day was just getting hammered and they told me about a tradition they have on their tennis team (university of bathe). If someone losses a set 6-0 that person has to take a shot of one of the other players' piss later that night when they are all partying. And they actually do it! They launched into a series of remember when stories of all the times they've taken shots of each others' piss. I was really glad I hadn't gotten bagled in my first set loss to Pete.

I've been a major metro rat the past 5 days, going to and from Pontois, and felt like I was only navagating the city underground. On one of my days off I escaped the metro and walked a ton around the city with Clemants, a french student who has been living in the apt with her boyfriend. First we went to the Jardin de Luxembourg which is pretty close to our apartment and has some cool public tennis courts wedged between the park's gardens and its palace. Then she showed me the fashion district and we walked down the main fashon street, Avenue Montaigne which is laced with all the famous fashion brands. Walking down the fancy street marked with quadrouple Euro prices made me look back on the days with Colin and when someone would suggest to us, "Oh you guys should go do such & such, it only costs..." And Colin would interupt, "Nope, if it costs money WE'RE NOT DOING IT." We stopped by the Champs Elysèes and then, after walking for like 4 hours, decided to take the metro home (haha).

Living in a sweet spot in Paris is awesome but part of me misses the huck-finn moments with Colin. Perusing my memory for our cheapest moments, I've come up with a few:

-stealing silverware from every grocery store we entered.

-colin refusing to pay 15 euros for the hostel in Gruissan, opting to sleep on the beach and getting drenched by early morning beach irrigation.

Next tourny: TC Du Grand Versailles. 4,730€ terra battu!!!