There is nothing like playing tennis outdoors to make you appreciate the passing of the seasons and the slightest nuance in the weather. Today is the first day this year that the sun has felt really warm - should I chance a skirt? The trouble was I didn't know if there would be changing facilities and I definitely knew I didn't want to brave the journey there with bare legs. In the end I decided against it, but it was definitely a skirt day - and a day for sunglasses and visor come to that! Easter is just around the corner and the chocolate shops were putting on their best displays - a reminder, if I needed it, that in order to eat chocolate I need to play more tennis.
Tennis Château de Rentier is a short walk from the Place d'Italie - not a beauty spot on any day of the week. In fact the best that can be said for it is that it's a lovely Metro ride from our apartment as the train pops out of the tunnel at Bastille to cross the Seine with great views of Notre Dame and a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. That part of the 13th arrondissement is jam-packed with high-rise towers - thank goodness for the blue skies otherwise the whole place would have been swallowed up in a sea of grey.
The court (and there is only one) feels very much like an afterthought, tucked behind the swimming pool and gymnasium where crowds of schoolchildren were having various sports lessons when we arrived at 11am. It is squeezed bang up against a block of flats lined with balconies where various residents came out to adjust their washing lines, shake out out their shopping bags and tend their window boxes as we played.
The surface can best be described as a clay-coloured doormat which was sprinkled with twigs as if a flock of birds had been practising nest-building on the same scale as the housing projects on all sides. To make matters worse, it had a distinct camber sloping downhill from the middle of the court to one side. No matter! At least the net was intact and wound to the correct height this time. The blocks of flats on all sides also meant excellent acoustics for scoring purposes. Not a court to hurry back to - I'm glad to tick it off my list, but like Court 2 at Porte de Bagnolet last week more of a miss than a hit.
Tennis Château de Rentier
184 rue du Château de Rentier
Paris 75013
Tel: 01 45 84 84 46
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