A visit to Roland Garros

   

Friday, April 4th, it’s my birthday, 2:30 pm when my mother, my sister and I arrived in front of the stadium Roland Garros… I always feel the same excitement every time I enter “the arena”.

But this time it’s different because I get ready to see backstage, I mean THE places reserved for the players… Finally I'm going in the locker… to see the room for interviews, the CENTRAL (center court)…

It’s 3 pm when the guide arrives… “ And it goes for a complete tour of the stadium for approximately 1:30». We begin with the mythical « Place des Mousquetaires » and some explanations about the story of Roland Garros… That brings me very good memories…



Then the Suzanne Lenglen court: walking along central is like a dream for me… Once arrived in front of the Lenglen, we got a little speech about Lenglen’s tennis career, then we go inside the court and we take some pictures.

Finally, we take the direction of the Philippe Chatrier court … "I'm so excited!!!"

We turn back to reach the Central and we enter under the Central… we are backstage, under the press gallery… It’s a labyrinth, corridors again and again and again… We visit the cabins of the sport commentators , the computers rooms…

Then… we arrive in the interview room…It’s really disturbing to sit down on THE chair reserved for the players, and to be in a place where only some privileged persons have access.

We go out of the Central by the place we arrived. We go around the court to arrive in front of the entrance of the VIP platform. Just opposite is the arrival of the players’ cars… And for once I am allowed to go there!!

We go up two stairs to arrive on the small street where the players get out of theirs cars ,

Then we go to "THE" corridor, a staircase which leads directly to the basement of the Central to arrive at locker room and areas reserved for the players …Small disappointment, in front of men and women's lockers, they choose to take us to the women's ones. The guide explains to us that it is impossible to visit men’s locker room but that they are both pratically identical… The big poster with the cup is obviously different, because the cups are different. But what an emotion when we push the door…!

To be forgiven ,they prepared a little film about the locker room during RG 2007…

Then we go out of the locker room to take the road to the Central… a long corridor… then “the” stairs, those stairs we can see on TV when players arrive on the court, those stairs where the big players have affixed their signature, there are tens, but one in particular got my attention…

Finally we go up stairs and stay in front of the door of the Central. The pressure rises, the guide starts up the sound band…We can hear spectators shouting, applausing. Then we open the door… and we are on the Central!!! The moment is simply unforgettable … unbelievable

We stay there for a moment, take some pics… We go around the court, we sit down a moment in locker room … We take advantage of the moment! Then we go away … We close the door reluctantly, we go back up the staircase, we go back in front of locker room, we take back the staircase which leads to the surface … And it is finished!!! But that will remain a really magic moment for me...