Tennis and a search for an painting instructor for Yvette

Bonjour mes amis,

Now that we've joined a local city-sponsored tennis club, we're trying to find players to play with. We were told by the staff at the club that most of the players play after 5:00 p.m. because they work, all of which makes sense. So, with that in mind, we took the bus (always an adventure) the two miles or so to the club on Monday, around 6:00 p.m. Aside from a couple of guys rallying on one court, there was no one playing. We rallyed for about 45 minutes, to at least get some exercise, and finally hopped the bus back to our flat ... still wondering how we're going to find an "in" to the local tennis scene. We're going to try again on Wednesday and Saturday.

Today, we spent a couple of hours searching out another "hopeful" contact for Yvette to take a painting class. Monique, the French lady (probably about 55 years old or so) we were looking for, has a reputation, locally, as a prominent oil painting instructor. Apparently, Yvette had been in touch with her via email when we were back in Florida. In any event, we tracked Monique down ... about a fifteen minute walk from our flat.

She has her "studio" in a courtyard sort of area (like a backyard in a way) on the lot where she has lived all of her life. The treed, grassy area (about 30 by 40 yards or so) was surrounded by buildings on all sides, pretty much the way the construction is here in Aix ... but it was a very inviting area and bubbling with a five or six of Monique's art students. From what we could tell, it was an international group. For sure, there were two Australians, one Taiwanese and a couple of French students. They all seemed to be busily working on a painting and "very" engaged. Yvette's thinking about perhaps taking a series of six lessons from Monique which are held on Tuesday afternoons, pretty much for the number of hours you desire.

On another tennis note, we're enjoying very much the French Open (one of the four major tennis championships, along with Wimbledon, and the Australian and US Opens). Top seed and world #1 Roger Federer lost today to Robin Soderling, the fifth seed from Sweden, whom he had beaten in last year's final. At the time, that was Federer's first French title and his 14th "major" over all, tying him with Pete Sampras. After later titles at Wimbledon and, earlier this year, in Australia, Federer stands alone at the top of the tennis pantheon of champions with 16 major titles.

Incredibly (to us), French television cuts for commercials at seeminly random times ... at least two different times (earlier in the week), they've cut in the middle of a tie-breaker (the "first to 7 points" game that decides a set which is tied at 6 to 6). This would be unheard of in the US. I'm curious to discover if they do the same with World Cup soccer competitions. I have a little trouble imagining any TV coverage cutting for commercial break during a "shoot out" at the end of a tied game. My guess that there would be rioting in the streets if that were to happen. Once again, c'est la vie.

That's it for now. A bientot from Aix ...