When I left London earlier this year to move to Paris I knew that the thing I would miss most would be my lovely tennis club in Ealing. My Monday mornings with the ladies were the perfect way to start the week and an hour on court on any other day was the perfect pick-me-up. I cried when I left and they presented me with a fabulous new racket to take to Paris and my long-suffering doubles partner Charlotte gave me a net-measuring chain from Queen's Club as I never lost the opportunity to protest that the net was too high or too low (and I was usually right!)
Living in the centre of Paris in the 11th arrondissement I knew it would be difficult to find a club. I took to approaching complete strangers carrying tennis rackets in the street or on the Metro and asking where they played. Eventually I realised that Paris was not so much full of tennis clubs as full of tennis courts - dotted about the city and often hidden from view. All you had to do was register with the Mairie (because the French love nothing so much a bit of administration) - a process which was free - and then you could go on line and book any of the courts on a first-come-first-served basis and pay when you played.
And so I decided I'd abandon my search for a club - I'd never find one to compare with Ealing anyway - I wanted to play for fun and to keep fit. Instead I challenged myself and my husband to try out every court in Paris - a tennis tour of Paris.
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