The
main reason for my most recent trip to Paris was a trip to Roland Garros, my
second in as many years, to watch the opening day of the French Open. I’m a
massive tennis fan which runs in my family and the dream is to go to all four
of the Grand Slams one day. I’ve ticked the French Open and Wimbledon off my
list so just the Australian and US to go! Unlike Wimbledon, the only way to get
tickets for Roland Garros is via their own website. They sell no tickets at the
door and your name is printed on your ticket and checked against your ID on the
day so there is no way for ticket touts to sell the tickets on. If you want to
resell your tickets, you have to do so via the official Roland Garros website
and only for the original price which is something I think all ticket outlets
should start doing. This process meant that getting into Roland Garros itself
is super quick and easy. You obviously have to go through security checks which
were heightened given the current climate but even then it only took around 10
minutes from arriving to getting into the the venue itself.
Tickets usually go on sale in March and
involves sitting in a bloody long online queue in the hope of getting tickets.
I say in the hope but last year I was 75,000th in the queue and
once I got through I still had the pick of all the tickets I’d wanted. This
year I was fortunate enough to only be 11,000th so that shaved
around 4 hours off my wait time! This year I was taking my mum as a joint
birthday and mother's day present so I figured I'd treat her to the centre
court tickets which cost around €110 each. Obviously the deeper into the
tournament you get the more expensive the tickets can become but Roland Garros
also offer €20 Ground passes that allow you onto the site and into the outside
courts so you can definitely do it on a budget and just soak up the atmosphere.
The grounds themselves are situated a 20
minute drive from central Paris in an area called Boulogne-Billancourt and
there is a park and ride available. For us it was easier to just hop in a cab
that took us from door to door in no time. We had tickets for the main
court, Philippe Chatrier, and were lucky to be in the shade most of the day so
didn’t have to contend with the sun as much as others did. Unfortunately, I was
hoping to see Rafael Nadal (my mum and I may or may not have huge crushes on
him) but luck wasn’t on our side as he was playing on the Monday. However, the
tennis we did get to see was still great and the people we got chatting to in
and around the grounds made the day very worthwhile.
If you're a tennis fan of any capacity I'd
definitely recommend trying to make it to at least one Grand Slam in your
lifetime. Roland Garros is most definitely one to try and go to as it is nowhere near as busy as Wimbledon (so no queuing for 24 hours in the hope of
getting a ticket!) and is just generally a much more relaxed day out. And
throwing a few days in Paris into the mix can never do any harm either!
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