A Tennis Match Too Far

Tour Eiffel from Saint Cloud

Many times it has come up in conversation about the crazy things my friends & I do to re-arrange our lives to play tennis.  Laundry at 11:00 pm (that was always me!), accounting work in the middle of the night, cramming 40 hours of work into 3 days....But, if you ever wondered how far I would go for a tennis match, you've got your answer now:  I walked through 3 small towns, (I think) about 5 miles in about 2 hours!  Yes, I have finally have discovered a strategy that could possibly allow me to beat my friend, tennis superstar Christi Hastings:  drop her off about 5-6 miles from the match with a heavy racquet bag to carry in a foreign country!  Make her find her way to the match in a new language!! Then, I might somehow wear out even Christi, who has been known to do a complete triathlon BEFORE her tennis match...ha!  But, here was my day yesterday:
A nice gal from my girls' school organized a tennis group for Tuesdays.  I was really excited to join and get out and play after taking an extended leave from tennis.  In fact, I haven't played since April.  So sweet Corry sent an email about playing, along with the address for the courts.  I wasn't really sure how to get there without driving.  I mean, I could drive, but that is really scary since I haven't driven before in Paris, not to mention, I have only ridden in a car twice since July when we arrived.  So, I made my plan to catch the bus, followed by a train out to Bougival, where the club is located.  I figured once I got there, I would just navigate to the tennis club on my phone (GPS/google maps) and walk.  When I entered all the info, I could not find the section from the train station to the tennis club, but what the heck!  I can do this!!  If I can drive all over the 4th largest city in the US to play tennis, how difficult can finding this tennis club be? It's a small town....

I walked through Bougival, Louveciennes and La Celle-Saint Cloud!

Off I went in my tennis clothes with my bag to the bus from my place in Neuilly to Pont de Neuilly, to catch the metro.  Rode that to La Defense, then tried to catch the train to Bougival, but hit a snag:  the French bus/train drivers decided to strike, so my train's arrival time kept getting later and later... But, it finally arrived and off to Bougival I went.  I didn't wear my ball cap as to keep my Americanism to a minimum, but a hauling around a giant "Wilson" black tennis bag and wearing neon-yellow sneakers could have given me away...but it was cool, because I knew what I was doing and where I was going...sorta....

rethinking my tennis bag...

When I arrived in Bougival, aka "The Boondocks", I noticed my maps were not complete.  I'm sure many of you know from experience, these maps/GPS are not a perfect science yet.   (I live this every time I search for courts in The Woodlands.)  But a map did load showing the club, so I thought I could find it.  Unfortunately, when my GPS said to make a left turn, it meant down an alley, not a street, so I got slightly lost.

No wonder I missed my left turn!

But, after much walking (about an hour with the hefty tennis bag on my back), I still hadn't made it to the club.  I guess at this point, I should mention the club is on an island in the middle of the Seine River, but it really wasn't super-obvious or anything.  But, I was not giving up and kept on reading my map and finding my way.  I seemed to be heading the right direction...

No street signs here--the street is placed on a wall or building and as you can see, it can be rather SMALL!!

I finally reached a big park and I remembered from my computer that the tennis club was near a golf course, so Voila! I had maybe found it!!  Kinda!!

Well, not really, but I did find the Total Tennis and Golf Club.  They were very friendly, especially when I told them (in my broken French along with excellent charades) my husband works for Total.  They showed me their courts and introduced me to the pro and ask me to join their club, which was exciting, except I was looking for a group of ladies from American School of Paris and I did not see any of those ladies at the Total club.  Dang!!  How many tennis clubs can be on one island??

Where my GPS actually took me....notice the word "Mort", which means death from branches falling on you, according to the sign.

So I finally gave my friend Corry a call to see if she could rescue me.  I noticed my fully-charged phone was down to 20% battery (foreshadowing, kids, an important detail for later in the story), but no worries, because Corry was on her way!  Yay!!  She found me and took me over to the tennis group--I was only about several blocks away, so not bad for someone my family deems "directionally challenged".  I met some wonderful ladies and hit some balls with Corry, who is a fantastic player--hope I can keep up with this group!  One of the ladies offered to drive me back to the train station to catch my train back. Whew!  What a relief after all the walking earlier!!
Unfortunately, she drove me to a different station--not the one in Bougival, but La Celle-Saint Cloud station.  Okay, no biggie--I can read the map, look at the monitors and figure out how to get home, right?  NOT!  The station had a big police tape "X" across the front door--the strike struck again!  But, being the plucky optimist I am, I still thought I could figure it all out, so found a working monitor with times and sat down to wait for the next train, scheduled to arrive in about 10 minutes.  When the train never came (Dang!!!) I realized I was stuck there, but what to do?  My phone was almost dead, I didn't have much cash and no one around me spoke English...uh-oh...I really wasn't sure where I really was, so I didn't think I could walk anywhere (plus I was really tired from the earlier walk).  If my phone died, I don't have Paul's phone number memorized, plus he was downtown...oh gosh, I'm a little worried now...

I'm sure I was a sight for the locals to laugh about:  sitting there in my tennis clothes in the freezing rain (yes, it was 50s & rainy by then) with my giant bag wearing a ball cap and smiling at strangers.  (Okay, I was hoping someone might speak English to help me out.)
There were busses there--LOTS of busses, but sadly, no drivers--maybe they were on strike, too?  But, I tried to see if there was a bus to somewhere I had been before, like another train station or Versailles?  Was I even near Versailles? or Bougival?
Then, Voila! I saw a row of taxis!!  Recently I have discovered that taxis take credit cards (Plucky optimist emerges again!) With the cost of fuel over here at 8-9 Euros a gallon, who has the cash for a taxi anyway?  You gotta use your credit card!  Of course, none of them spoke English, but, if you know anything about me at all, you know I can play an excellent game of charades, including my personal favorite: "I need your help and I have a credit card!" along with "I'm desperate!".
So, I finally made it home by 3:00 pm from my 10:00 am tennis match with some part of my pride still intact.  My daughter Laura said, "Mom, it's funny how stuff like that always happens to you!"  Yes, just me and Kramer.