Paris – Day 4 (Kirk’s Favorite Day)

After bombarding you a few weeks ago with daily posts from our Paris trip in June, accept our apologies for the hiatus…we’re busy, OK?  Actually, a big reason for this lag time between posts is due to the fact that I (Kirk) can’t adequately put Day 4 into words.  You see, this was the best day of the trip for me, but I’m pretty sure that to nearly everyone else it may be one of the least exciting.  So I’m warning you in advance: I may type a lot and I may geek out a bit, but please read on, because for me, a day in Paris (on a tight budget) couldn’t be better than this!

We started the day by visiting some sites within walking distance of our apartment, since we had big plans for the afternoon and didn’t want to miss them.  One great thing about the museum passes we bought on our first day in Paris is that it exposes you to some smaller museums that you may otherwise overlook (or decide not to pay for).   With passes in hand we visited the apartment and studio (now museum) of Eugene Delacroix.  It was really cool to see the space where he lived and worked as well as some beautiful paintings.  After that we headed to the Pantheon, which was incredibly impressive, as you can see from the pictures below.  My favorite aspects were seeing Foucault’s pendulum (go get your geek on) and the tombs of French “national heroes” like Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Marie and Pierre Curie, and Louis Pasteur.

After exploring the Pantheon, we strolled along Rue Mouffetard, a quaint street with lovely shops and cafes.  It may sound strange, but Lynne was craving warm soup, and I was craving Asian food, and by chance we found a great little Vietnamese place.  If the food hadn’t been so terrific, it probably wouldn’t have been worth mentioning, but in a small room that could fit only 13 people, I had the best pho of my life.  After that lunch, with my belly sloshing, we hopped the metro to head just west of the city to the destination I was most looking forward to visiting on this trip…

Roland Garros!

What a sight it was to see the brilliant red clay in person!

To best explain our experience at the French Open, I need to start from the beginning, and I do mean the very beginning (remember I warned this could be a high word count – if you don’t have the time to read, just page down to look at the pretty pictures from the matches and my encounter with the number one player in world).  I was born in June of 1981…ok, not that beginning – rather the beginning of our plans to go to Paris.  Early into parenthood, I realized that leaving Eliza behind to go on a trip was going to be very difficult, especially for Lynne.  Thanks to the advice of some friends of mine who were young fathers, I learned that the best way to get your wife to agree to a long trip away from the baby is to let her pick anywhere in the world she wanted to go.  Being an adventurous traveler, that didn’t seem like too tall a proposition.

After giving it a lot of thought, Lynne picked Paris, but that didn’t mean we could plan our trip just yet.  Certain conditions had to be met before we could handle 11 days away from Eliza.  It had to be after Eliza’s first birthday, breast feeding had to conclude, it had to make sense with my work schedule, and we had to take a practice getaway to test being away from Eliza.  Eventually all of those conditions were met, and the trip could be booked.  We had anticipated going some time in the early summer since it would be nice to time it with either our 5th anniversary (May 22) or birthdays (June 4 and 6), but to make it happen I had to organize the trip in about three weeks.  Not an easy thing to do when you are as price conscious and detail oriented as I am when making large purchases or planning large events (and Lynne is too, which I’m sure you could tell if you were at our wedding in 2005).

Once we set the trip to be in late May/early June, which included our birthdays, I got to work figuring out where we’d stay, how we’d travel, and what we’d make sure not to miss in Paris.  It didn’t even sink in right away that we had scheduled our trip to coincide with the French Open.  This was probably a blessing in disguise because if I had realized it sooner, I may have pressured Lynne into scheduling the trip to accommodate me, instead of the other way around.  Once I did realize we’d be in the city during the tennis major, I was giddy (yes, literally) with excitement.

For those who don’t know, I became a big tennis fan in junior high when I finally picked up the sport, played throughout high school, did my best to dominate intramurals at Purdue, and still enjoy it a lot today (both watching and playing).  Growing up I was never able to attend a major tournament, and once I moved to Indianapolis, the (former) RCA Championships had fizzled down to a less than star-studded affair (and now it’s moved to Atlanta).  While I was able to watch the Davis Cup in Birmingham, Alabama right before Eliza was born for my first major tennis event, it has been a goal of mine to attend all four majors (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open) sometime in my lifetime.  I was thrilled that I was going to officially start tackling that to-do list.

Of course, wanting to go to the French Open while in Paris and actually finding tickets to attend are two very different things.  Since we were planning the trip last minute, I knew I had to act fast, but I also had no clue about the best way to acquire tickets for an international sporting event.  Here in the states, if I wanted last minute tickets to a Cubs game, I’d check prices on StubHub or one of the dozens of other ticket resale sites, Craigslist postings, EBay auctions, or even message boards on Cubs fan blogs.  I found that on all these sites, French Open tickets were offered generically for sale (for ridiculously high prices), but with little detail.  It looked fishy, so I spent hours scouring the French Open site (in English, thankfully) and reading through their online tournament program and guide.  What I learned changed how I viewed sporting events in America.

To get French Open tickets on the secondary market, there was only one legitimate site to use, and it partnered with the French Tennis Federation.  When an individual originally purchases tickets when they first go on sale earlier in the year, their name is printed on the ticket.  The admission process to the event includes showing your ticket and a photo ID to match the name.  This keeps people from selling tickets through any avenue other than the official sanctioned site, so you cannot buy legitimate tickets from a street hawker.  While this is interesting, it isn’t too unique – it’s basically just an exclusivity arrangement with a site like StubHub.  Here’s the catch though – if you are selling your French Open tickets, you can only sell them for face value!

I was shocked!  I had expected to have to shell out a lot of cash to attend one day of the Open (which would still have been worth it since more likely than not it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity), but the system was set up so that tickets were consistently affordable.  I thought this was not only novel, but a huge breath of fresh air in a sporting event landscape that has gotten more and more expensive every year in the states.  This way, no one would snatch up tickets right away to turn a profit, instead only buying as many as they’d like to personally use or share with family and friends.  I wish we could be that noble here, and it would make it a lot easier for families and kids to attend amazing sporting events.

So while I was thrilled to learn about this site and the face value tickets, that didn’t really solve my problem.  Given that there wasn’t an incentive for people to buy tickets with the sole intent to resell them for profit, the secondary market for tickets should remain very limited, composed mostly of people who can’t attend an event they were planning to and also didn’t have any friends or family who wanted to go in their stead.  The first two days I checked the tickets site, there wasn’t a single ticket for sale, including all 14 days of the tournament and tickets for all the featured stadium courts and general grounds.  I was quickly disheartened, but I knew I had to do all I could to make this experience happen.

On my third day of looking, at about 2am (I wasn’t getting much sleep putting this trip together, especially trying to find a good apartment rental), I finally saw a listing for two tickets, and it just so happened that they were for a day we’d be in the city (the Open lasts two weeks, and we’d only be in town for the second week).  I quickly clicked through the links to purchase them and then discovered that you could only purchase one at a time.  Oh no!  What if I bought one and the other was sold during that interim time confirming my credit card information?  Oh well, I had to risk it, and as the confirmation website loaded I was already coming up with a back up plan if I was only able to get one (“Hey Lynne, you can go shopping while I watch tennis, is that OK?”).  Fortunately, I was able to get both and I jumped up and did a silent victory celebration.  Each ticket cost less than $20.  Combined that was cheaper than an official French Open t-shirt!

The two tickets I purchased were for admission to the general grounds.  At the major tennis events there are usually three featured courts that are housed inside stadiums, and then about 20 courts that are considered general admission.  During the first week of any major, there are so many matches to be played that you can usually see players seeded worse than 5 on the side courts throughout the day.  Check out the photo below to see how small the bleachers are on these side courts.

Ridiculously close!  Unfortunately, we weren’t in Paris during that time, so we were attending on a Wednesday of the second week.  In some ways, this was probably beneficial for my mental well being, as I likely would have experienced paralysis by analysis – not knowing which court to go watch when there were so many amazing options.  During the second week of a major, the “grounds” tickets aren’t quite as desirable because the side courts feature mostly doubles and mixed doubles.  As the field narrows, there simply isn’t a need to play on the outer courts, since there are three stadium courts for the remaining matches.  When I purchased the tickets, I knew this, but I didn’t care.  I didn’t mind watching wheelchair or mixed doubles as long as I could be at Roland Garros.  One additional consolation was the fact that the smallest of the three stadium courts (Court 1) was covered with my ticket starting that day, so there might be more opportunities to see featured matches.  Also, I was savvy enough to realize that if there was any rain earlier in the week, it could change the schedule and cause high profile matches to be played on the side courts for the sake of time.

OK, that’s enough back story.  The day was upon us.  We headed to the gate, and I was a man on a missions.  There had, in fact, been a little bit of rain earlier in the week which meant the women’s doubles semi-finals were happening on Court 1, so we had tickets for them.  Upon arrival, my expectation was to see a long line of people (all with “grounds” tickets like us) waiting to get into Court 1 to see these featured matches, especially since the matches on the side courts were mixed doubles (without any big stars), wheel chair tennis, or juniors singles and doubles.  Clearly, if you hard “grounds” tickets, Court 1 was the only place you’d want to be.  Lynne and I jogged over to Court 1 to discover no lines and hundreds of empty seats.  I was giddy.  The first women’s doubles semi-final was in progress, and we could sit as close as we wanted.  The pictures below can put it a little into perspective.  You can see the size of Court 1 and where we were sitting.

Many of you reading may wonder why I was so surprised to see so many open seats for women’s doubles.  Here were my reasons:

1.  It’s the semi-finals!  That means you’ll see eight of the best doubles players in the world, with a chance to win a major tournament.

2.  With “grounds” tickets, the only other matches to watch in person were lesser-knowns playing mixed doubles, juniors, or exhibition wheelchair tennis (which I did get to watch, and it’s pretty cool).

3.  Did I mention what women were playing?  Sure, six of them were doubles specialists that the average tennis fan has never heard of, but in the second semi-final match we got to see Venus and Serena Williams play!  Check out all of our photos below.  We were so close it was surreal.

The sisters are discussing strategy…or are they?

Venus: “Did you see that guy with the cool camera? I’m kind of worried he’s going to jump out on the court and try to give us a hug.”

Serena: “It’s ok, his wife will stop him.  He knows I’d beat him up anyway.”

Have I mentioned how much I love our camera?!

As a man, it’s humbling to watch the power with which the Williams sisters play.  Their second serves are still faster than most of my first serves.

Serena: “That dude’s still taking pictures of us.  I think he must have 500 pictures already!”

Venus: “Maybe I should flash him some leg then.”

You can see their mom sitting right behind them.  After watching your kids win and lose hundreds of “big” matches, it must be pretty dang mundane.

Do you look so graceful when you play tennis?

The match was pretty interesting.  About 30 minutes before the match began, Serena was walking off the main court where she had lost her singles match in the quarterfinals.  She was justifiably upset.  Serena was the top seed and (at the time) best player in the sport (Kim Clijsters is giving her a run for her money now).  It must be hard to have to collect yourself after a tough loss and then immediately go play another important (albeit slightly less so) match.  It also had to be hard for Venus.  What do you say to your sister?  “Sorry you lost, but snap out of it, we have work to do.”

The first set was tragic for the Williams sisters.  It seemed that every shot Serena hit was full of such anger, while Venus simply tried to ignore her sister’s mistakes while playing too conservative trying not to make her own.  Serena’s shots were hit so hard but with little focus, and they kept smashing into the net or sailing long.  Of course, they weren’t playing against your average intramural team; they were facing one of the best doubles teams in the world.  After losing a disappointing first set, the girls got it together and won the next two sets to win the match (3-6, 6-2, 6-4).  When they are playing good tennis, I don’t think any women’s doubles team in history could get a set off of them.  It’s really cool that, unlike most of the top singles players, the Williams sisters play doubles (and they used to play some mixed doubles), which just proves how dominate they are.

The other semi-final match was also a highly contested three set battle that had some amazing points and rallies.  Later in the week, the Williams sisters would win handedly in the finals.

It’s always fun to see an argument with the chair umpire!

In between matches we were able to walk around the grounds.  On reason for the low turnout at Court 1 was the fact that Rafael Nadal was playing his quarterfinal match at the same time on the main court.  Most people with grounds tickets chose to watch that match on the big screen right outside Court 1 instead of walking up the stairs to watch live tennis.  Kind of odd, but the French do love them some Rafa!  As we took in all the sights around Roland Garros I got to see some juniors play, tennis legend Goran Ivanisevic, wheel chair tennis, mixed doubles, and lots of finely dressed rich Parisians.  The place is beautiful, with lots of greenery, helpful staff, and incredibly clean facilities.

The final match of the night was a “legends” match, which features former stars playing some friendly doubles.  It’s really just an extra treat for the paying customers, and since a lot of these legends are in town as broadcasters, commentators, coaches, and fans, it’s pretty easy to get them on the court playing the sport they used to dominate.  I was really excited to see Martina Navratilova, possibly the best female tennis player of all time.  She teamed up with Jana Novotna to face Mary Jo Fernandez and Conchita Martinez, all of whom were stars when I first started getting into tennis.  Even though the quality of play was pretty poor, it was still exciting to see them all play and just to be there.

Once the exhibition match was over, the day at Roland Garros was complete.  Fans quickly left, but Lynne and I decided to continue to stroll around the grounds.  Our only plans for the rest of the evening were to grab dinner, so we were in no hurry, and I honestly didn’t want to leave.  Eventually, we saw almost all of the staff leaving, walked alongside some mixed doubles players who were chatting after their match, took a lot of pictures, and realized we should probably head to the exit before getting thrown out.  I’d estimate there were probably less than 30 fans there when we finally left.  It turns out that waiting around had some added benefits.

As we walked back to the entrance, we came across a group of 6 or 7 kids standing around a security guard.  They were all speaking French, but it seemed as though there was someone eating at the club restaurant and the kids were clamoring for the guard to let them see him/her.  Of course the guard was having none of it, but I figured (as did the kids) that if we waited around, we might see who it was.  We waited around somewhat awkwardly for about 10 minutes.  There were a few parents, but really just some young kids and one big kid (me).  Eventually a yell rang out and we saw who everyone had been waiting for, cleverly escorted through a different exit.  We ran over and there I was, standing a few feet from Rafael Nadal.

It’s pretty cool that I had to actually move farther away to get a good picture.  The kids were screaming “Rafa!” and clamoring for autographs, and I was just running around snapping as many photos as I could with a huge grin on my face.  I was pretty sure that if I got too close to him, I’d get pounced on by the security guards, since I was the only one over the age of 14 and the only viable security threat.  Eh, it would have been worth it to give Rafa a hug, but he either would have crushed me with those guns (seriously, for his smaller frame, the guy is built!) or I would have injured him and gotten in the way of him winning the whole dang tournament!  Nadal simply owns Roland Garros, and the fans all know it.

That was the perfect end to our day at the French Open.  I was beaming as we walked back to the subway.  One tennis major down, three to go!