Oh, Paris, Paris! I didn’t get to see much of you this time but I think that in 3 days I covered the most important parts for my visit. As much as I say that I don’t like that place it somehow feels a bit like home, or at least it gives me a sense of familiarity. But skipping that and moving forward to important things, I am going to talk about… tennis, what else?
Like any trip to Paris that is taken in May, the best moment of the month to do that is during Roland Garros. That place is magical. I think the moment I lined up for the queue my mood changed instantly, it has this effect on me. It’s like walking into a sanctuary. The moment I actually sat down to watch a match was the moment when I told myself “here I am, again”. It felt like just yesterday I stepped into the tennis venue for the first time, though that was in 2006 on a short visit to Paris. Then in 2012 I actually went there to see the matches. Now I was back, for a short visit, just one day, but it was enough to get a taste of what a Grand Slam is all about: passion, it’s huge, and it’s all about tennis.
Of course my day started with a classic:
I didn’t see Novak Djokovic enter the stadium but I did catch a glimpse of a Romanian, Adrian Ungur, I saw a very good women’s tennis match: Petra Kvitova vs Danka Kovinik, to end it with a bit of Kei Nishikori vs Simone Bolelli. And of course running around from one court to the other to see who is playing, to check a game, the score or just sitting in front of the huge screens and watching two matches at a time. And I saw a lot of rain, unfortunately. But Roland Garros is an experience in itself, spinning around tennis, of course. But the rain was a good moment to just walk around the huge tennis park and look at everything, enjoy every detail, from the way they placed the food courts to the outfits of the hospitality personnel, from the official merchandise to trying the hotdogs with the ultimate, original and most delicious Dijon mustard. And let’s not forget about the coffee. Lots of it because it was really cold. Though I really think that the French don’t know what a big coffee is.
During the rain the organisers tried to entertain the audience as best as they could. Two girls were singing and playing with the king size tennis balls and dancing to an improvised version of “Les Champs-Elysées” but putting “Roland Garros” in the chorus. Funny enough, today at work after seeing a news item on Paris and the famous street I listened to the song, Joe Dassin version. And then I listened to it again, and to his whole album on Spotify. For those who may not know Joe Dassin I have to say this: “Et si tu n’existais pas”, probably his best known song, back home at least. And shuffling through his songs I ran across one that gave me a bit of a thrill. That was because from the first chords I recognised something amazing, something I have always danced to but haven’t listened to in maybe over 20 years. The song I am talking about is “Siffler sur la colline” and the chorus is the best reason to “play the guitar” with… a tennis racket. I have done it so many times, I can’t even remember it but I had no idea I would run into this song again because I wanted to listen to another song that I heard at a tennis event.
All in all it might not have been a perfect day for tennis, weather-wise, but my visit there was amazing. And most importantly: zai, zai, zai, zai!
It was a thrill to see the Romanians play, Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau gave me another chance to attend a near heart-attack match. Than it wasn’t a pleasure to see the finals canceled because of the rain, and miss the last ever finals of the tournament because they got rescheduled for the day when I had my flight back to Sweden.
Spinning Words 