Tournament Schedule

Here is a google map of our tournament schedule. They are numbered in the order that were going to play them in, and the descriptions gives the surface and amount of euros that could become Slug property.

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Training in Rouen, Normandy

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This is Marc Varta reporting from Rouen, a medium sized city that's about an hour and a half train ride northwest from Paris. I arrived Tuesday morning, & realized Colin and I never set a meeting time or place! That error led to a long and confusing day of us trying to find each other without phones or email in Paris and in Rouen, where Colin had booked us a room for the night. Eventually, Colin found me wh

ile window shopping on Rouen's main street in downt

own, Rue de Republica. We were very happy and relieved to have found each other and checked into our room. Here is the view looking out the window in our small room. We grabbed our rackets and set out in search of a tennis court we found on a map. After much searching we gave up on the court and hit against a wall in the downtown area and played some games of reflex volleys, wanting to keep sharp for our competition to come.

Wednesday we spent the whole morning viewing the sights Rouen's historical district has to offer, including the famous Notre

Dame of Rouen. Here is Colin striking a pose in front of the massive cathedral. We also went inside and learned of the famous french painter, Claude Monet's famous impressionist paintings of the Cathedral.

We then decided it was time to hit the courts. We

stumbled through various bus swaps and much walking, finally arriving at a few public hard courts a good distance

out of the city. We practiced and got picked up by our new friend Mr. Gustavo. We a

rrived at the apartment where we are spending a few nights and were thrilled to find a sweet (pimped out tennis/hockey training facility) apartment flat equipped with a kitchen, living room, couches, and a state of the art gym!

We have been really hammering out our tournament plans and, with the help of Mr. Gustavo, got into three tournaments starting tuesday on the Normandy Coast! It's cool how the tournaments are organized; we are playing one tourny and then the next one (a week or so later) is about 15 km up the coast. The 3rd one is another 10km up the coast. After these three tournys we plan to play 3 more in Britagney, further west and on the coast.

Monday, July 26

Monday, July 26 - I moved to a way better hostel, the Plug-Inn hostel, in the Montmarte which is right next to the red light district and down the street from the famous Mouline Rouge. Com

pared to the big boulevards that are around the latin district, its much different with narrow streets and guys selling stuff on the streets. I had my first Parisian pizza today, sooo bomb! The cheese here is awesome, but the most unique thing about it was the fat egg cracked right in the middle that was running and barely cooked. I thought it would be weird, but surprisingly it was really good.

I spent the day just hanging out in the parks and gardens around central Paris, and roaming around the Northern part of the city that I hadnt seen. The first picture is back of Notre Dame Cathedral, where a German raggae band was playing. They travelled here from Germany to play raggae music in France but they were singing in English about California, it was kinda a weird coincidence but they were really good. I also spent some time just laying around in the Louvre Park and I drew this picture of my view of the Eiffel Tower and a park where a group of kids were playing. I was kind of in between these cool hedges that made neat rows along the park, and behind me was the huge Louvre structure.

I staying the night with my buddy Mark, who is living in Paris for the summer. We had a few drinks by the Canal Saint Martin, where people hang out at night on the streets. Mark introduced me to Leffe beer, a blonde Belgium beer thats delicious, try one. DO it, do it.

Just waiting for varta to get in today, and were taking a train to Rouen (pronounced like raw) to meet Gustavo, who is helping us with our tournament schedule. The place were staying has a gym and courts, so the vacation part of my trip is over and its time to get down to business.

CMG

Trial and Error - My first week in Paris

What a trip! I have met many new friends and have also spent lots of time roaming and touring around alone. I am learning more and more about the French tennis system everyday, but have still not successful found a tournament that I can play. I think tomorrow is the day! The process of finding out how this works can only be called trial and error, and mostly by error so far. I finally got my license and ranking, went to a French doctor for a “Certificate de aptitude,” learned how to read the schedule, and have been emailing, and calling tournaments. I’m going to call two tournaments in the morning, both in Normandy about a half and a half north by bullet train. Hopefully tomorrow I will be on my way to play!

Sites I have seen in paris:

Pantheon, Notre Dame, Louvre, Bastille, Rolland Garros, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees

I have been taking the METRO out to a tennis club called Lutece on the fringe of Paris to practice on their indoor ‘resin” courts. They have a wood base and then a top layer of cement that makes them feel very hollow and slow, but actually really fun to play on. They are the most similar to clay out of any hard court I have hit on. Still waiting to play on the red clay… I’m practicing there because I the other day I went to sign up for a tourney and asked to use the courts. The only person there to hit with was a 12 year old French kid, all fitted out in Nike gear, whose name was Rafael, the coolest little guy I’ve met this whole trip. We hit for an hour, and then ate lunch together. We could barely talk but tried and joked around, and it turns out his grandma is the receptionist. So I went back and hit with a few other guys around the club, and today I played the tournament umpire who is a good player and barely won in a set. His name is Stephane, super nice guy and he has been tutoring me on how the French circuit works. Still getting my rythme since I haven’t been able to play much. I CANT WAIT TO PLAY A TOURNY!!!

I have just moved out of my first hostel, named OOPS, which was a designer hostel that most of my roommates said was the nicest hostel they had ever been in. The desk was lit with neon lights, the common room painted with a rainbow mural, the hallways covered in animal print, the rooms with their own bathroom, and a view of the Eiffel tower from my bedroom. Despite having six people in the room, I felt pretty at home.

Tomorrow is the finale of the Tour de France, and so the town is BOOKED. I was still looking for a place up until the last minute, but found one in a seedy hostel in the heart of the Latin Quarter. There are eight to a room, and our room has a high school locker room style shower with no door, and I feel terrible for the two bunks closest to the smelly shower. The best part is that when I first walked in there were only two beds and they were both next to this dude who was sleeping with no covers on and only wearing a skinny red thong bikini speedo atrocity, and he is a very hairy and unfit individual. Blehhhhh I wanna puke just thinking about it. There’s no way I’m staying another night here, but atleast it’s a bed.

Wish I had more pics, but I accidently fried my camera battery by plugging it in without the adapter. More pics to come…

Best to everyone, miss you all

I made it!

Im in France!!! Yeaaaahh. It was a really long trip, by the time I stopped in Minneapolis, Amsterdam, and finally got to Paris it was about 24 hours. Oddly enough it was only 8 in the morning, so I checked into my hostel and took the subway to Rolland Garros all the way on the edge of Paris. When I got off the stop for Rolland Garros I had lots of trouble finding it, because its tucked in with this huge stadium called the Hippodrome, and a huge park with greenhouses and museums. I accidently stumbled into the French tennis training academy, and when i got into the office I saw a poster of every French tennis player I knew on the wall saying that they trained there, like Gasquet, Matheiu, and Monfils, and that they were coached by Jean Bouin, and 2 seconds later he walked in and told me I wasnt in the right place! The guy looked really legit, im hoping to play a tourny there and chat him up. When I finally found Rolland Garros and bullshitted my way through the security, I was literally the only person there. None of the offices would help me and told me to register and sign up for tournaments online, which kinda sucked considering how much energy I had spent getting there. BUT, as I was walking through the stadium I looked down to the first practice court and saw Gasquet was practicing with his coaches. I went down and got to watch him for awhile. I took the subway back, ate a sandwich that had fritas (fries) shoved in it, and passed out for like 14 hours.

Anways, now I am here and have been chillin and looking around the sites. The airlines lost my tennis bag temporarily, so I havent played yet but cant wait to get on that sweet sweet red clay.

CMG