143 - Celebrate

Theme 45.

The day before I left Paris on my first June trip, I'd headed over towards Ile de la Cité, and happened to wander back over the river to see a bunch of cyclists in a mass cycle ride. As I was by then a stone's throw from the Hôtel de Ville, I went to photograph that. And saw a huge floor covering on the space in front of it.

It was an outdoor carpet type thing, red as the clay at Roland Garros, and with the lines of a tennis court marked out on it. In front of the Hôtel de Ville was a huge TV screen made up of lots of little monitors, and they were about to show the Men's over 45s doubles match. I had nothing planned, and figured it would be cool to stop and watch, so I did - especially as it was Henri Leconte and Mansour Bahrami, versus John McEnroe and someone. Leconte and Bahrami are very, very funny doubles players, Leconte especially - think like having two balls and throwing one up as if to serve, but then actually serving underarm with the second. Or spectacle shots, or jumping the net...

Anyway, after this, people started arriving more and the mat filled up from being sparsely populated to fuller, fuller, and "You didn't really want those 4 square inches of space by your feet, did you?" full.

From this:

to this:

to this, during the subsequent Men's Singles Final of the French Open, which was on right after the Men's Over 45s Double Final:

I'd been sick of being hemmed in by everyone, and when I saw a press photographer, I got up to see if he was Reuters (he wasn't - was AP). They'd spilled off the tennis court floor mat to sit on the floor all around it, and stand around the edges of the crowd too.

Anyway, it was Roger Federer versus Rafael Nadal in the final, and Nadal won, hence the Spanish people celebrating!

OK I spent all afternoon there, but I had more of an experience and memory than walking around sight after sight like a tourist sheep! ;-) (I feel OK posting the first two of the guys celebrating, as they did so on camera and were filmed for TV, happily). Oh yes, they did one of those "pan to the crowd" in the stadium itself things occasionally (like they do with Henman Hill at Wimbledon), but they also cut to us occasionally, at the Hôtel de Ville! Part of the "Roland Garros in the City". See?