france-week two

Week two

Here we are in week two of the France trip...Florin Mergea, Andis Juska (singles winner last week), and I took the 8am train from Lille direct to Poitiers (bordeux). We got in and called the club who sent a van for us. When we got to the courts, we checked out the draws and booked practice courts for later on in the afternoon. I opted for a 4pm hit with Florin and Andis picked a 6pm hit with a russian player, I think he wanted to catch some zzz's as he won last week and had a three setter yesterday. The train ride wasn't bad, a little over three hours. Twice though people came and tried to throw us out of our seats, and speaking french and waving their hands. We finally understood, but they were both in the wrong car, 16 not 17 was theirs, and we were in 17. So we held firm and everyone around us confirmed their stupidity and they exited stage left, booyah! The club here is ok, they have wireless internet (high five) and has a practice court as well. The courts aren't heated so that is a negative, but I will just play in a long sleeve shirt probably. We headed back to our hotel, which is worse than last week, a real doozy to say the least. The room was made for people who lack regular stature...ie it is impossible to go the bathroom while sitting on the toilet unless you extend your leg into the shower. A plus with the room being so small is that the beds are only half a foot apart and I can drop the hammer on Florin when he starts snoring!! My bags are propped at the end of my single bed to give my feet a place to rest as they do not fit on the bed. The transport seems real good, and at least we don't have to worry about taxis and such.

I play singles tomorrow against a good frnech player who qualied, Nicholas Renevand. Most say he is crazy but has nice classy strokes. So we will see what happens. I hit for 50 minutes today and felt pretty good, but we had four on a court and no one wanted to hit any long so I did some fitness and jumped rope after. We ate twice at the club and the food was ok, it is nice to have three courses meals everytime for 8 euros... Tonight we are just relaxing, it is snowing outside and around 25 f so doubt we will go downtown for some more food. We have pastries from Lille that our friend George bought for us before the train ride. We are seeded one in dubs and don't play until Thursday as we are already in the quarterfinals. Ok well I am going to stretch out and get some rest here, put in the earplugs and stuff! Au vois!