The beautiful French City of Bordeaux , population 235 ,000 plus , in South Western France is known to many as 'The World's Wine Capital', it bottles 700 million bottles each year , didn't mean much to Brett , Pete or myself , we were there to play Tennis. Not quite sure why we went to Bordeaux but i am glad we did , for a few reasons but the night we had at The Bordeaux pub after we had all got beaten in the local Tournament was a night to remember.
The local Bordeaux Tennis Tournament was played on clay , the setting was simply magnificent, I wished i had taken some photos, some things in life you simply take for granted , especially when you are 21. I do remember playing a Frenchman who knew how to play on the red dirt though and i received an 'education', you learn more from a loss than a win , I was a real 'student' at this Tournament. From memory Pete and Brett also lost early , so what do 3 young fellows from Oz do when they need to drown their sorrows ? You got it , find a pub. Now the watering hole we found was no ordinary pub , it had a screen on the wall large enough to be a Cinema , at the time it was playing Surfing footage , a nice feel as we walked in and ordered a round of beers . I don't recall what we ordered however it got the 'fluent French' going and it didn't take long to start 'chatting up' the local French ladies . When a French woman speaks it is a sound to behold , they have a way about them that is ever so petite and simply elegant , so much so that i do remember vividly telling one that i simply 'loved her', was it the beer talking or my heart? probably the beer.
We were in the pub with maybe 5 other Australian Tennis players and the feel that night was that we were '10 foot tall and water proof' , something that would've come in handy as we engaged in a beer fight on the way to the outside toilets towards the end of the night. Not sure why we didn't get kicked out , but hey if we were challenged i believe that 'ignorance' may just have helped us out of trouble . We played in the same Tournament as an Australian female player named Sissy Carvin, she was 16 at the time but somehow she made it through the rather lame security check with her older brother George . Not sure what happened to Sissy , I do know she broke inside the top World 700 for Women , after that it's a mystery , that night at the Bordeaux pub though where Sissy left as though she had been in a shower , courtesy of the beer fight, may just be one of her more 'unique' experiences on the Tennis circuit.
Probably the highlight of the trip to Bordeaux was the anticipation towards the comeback of Tennis Great Bjorn Borg , a match we watched on a tv in the local Sporting Club , Brett and Pete even had a bet on it . After Borg hit the second shot of the match past his extremely younger opponent Brett upped the bet , Pete accepted , it was to be the Great Man's last hurrah and Jordi Arrese from Spain won easily , the fairy tale was not meant to be .
Bordeaux is a beautiful French town , it is famous for wineries , if i were to visit there again i think it would be to take in more of the scenery but i would make two visits in particular, the first , the Tennis Club that was a postcard. Secondly the Bordeaux pub , a place that if it's walls talked i am sure would reminisce about some strange Aussies who spoke 'pigeon English' , threw beer at each other and told the local girls they were 'loved' , a night to remember......
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