Paris 2024 - Day 13 (July 29th) - Women's Volleyball

We have a quick breakfast at our Airbnb and then are off to Women’s volleyball at Arena Paris Sud 1 for an 9 AM match. The trip to the Arena just to our south was uneventful except that I accidentally double tapped my Navigo card, so the attendant had to check that I still had days left on it and then manually let me in. While this is the closest venue to our Airbnb, it also has the longest walk from the Metro to the Arena – perhaps a mile and a half. As in Rio, the medium/small sports are often housed in a space usually used for commercial exhibitions. It is the same for Paris where the Paris Expo has been rebranded Arena Paris Sud and is hosting Volleyball, Table Tennis, Handball and Weightlifting. Security doesn’t question my camera today and we head inside. It is clear that the Netherlands are playing:

This always makes for a good match because while they root very strongly for their own team, they really appreciate good play from either team. Sometimes our A-level tickets are great, like at Rugby Sevens, but today, they are less good, at least for photography:

Today’s match is Netherlands versus Turkey. It should be a pretty good match. Turkey is ranked #3 in the world while the Dutch are #8. While watching warm-ups, we see a very non-Turkish looking person:

This is Melissa Teresa Vargas, 6’4” tall and one of the top outside hitters in the world. She was born in Cuba, but as with a lot of other Cuban athletes, left Cuba for better opportunities. She obtained her Turkish citizenship in 2021 and has been playing professionally in Turkey for the last 5 years. Although Melissa ended up scoring more points than the top two Dutch players combined, the Netherlands wins the first two sets by identical 25-19 scores and only needed one more to win the match. But Turkey, mostly behind spikes from Vargas, came back to win the next two sets by identical 25-22 scores. In Volleyball, the 5^th set is played to 15 instead of 25 and Turkey hangs on to win the final set 15-13. Here are some pictures:

It is really crowded outside the arena after the game, so we decide to try to find somewhere close-by to eat. Sean does some magic on his phone and comes up with a Columbian restaurant that is only a 5-minute walk away – and more importantly, in a direction away from where everyone else wants to go. Even so, there are no tables available inside when we walk in. There are some tables outside, but we are having light rain. Just as we are about to go somewhere else, a group gets up to leave. Good thing, because the food is excellent! By the time we’re finished, the rain has let up and we take the long walk back to Metro line 13.

We are eating early so there is not much of a line when we get there. It doesn’t matter because we have reservations, but by the time Thomas arrives and a table is available, there is a good-sized line. I’m not sure what this restaurant was in its previous life, but the shape is very strange. There is a huge dining room followed by a long hallway with smaller tables on both sides. Our table is at the end of the hallway just before a small flight of stairs that go up into another room. There is a nice design on the wall:

In the afternoon, Sean takes a nap, Beth reads, and I work on my pin project. You may have noticed that so far, we have not eaten anywhere that was typically French. We’re going to fix that tonight. We have arranged to have dinner with one of Sean’s classmates in the Cupertino Mandarin immersion program. Thomas, whose father was born in France, has just finished his master’s in international business in Paris and is living here while looking for a job. He has recommended a place in the Montparnasse area that is very popular.

I’m trying not to think of how to get out of here in the event of a fire as we sit down. Our waiter, who is clearly not working for tips, drops off some menus, two in French and two in English, but Thomas helps us translate. The food was pretty unremarkable, but what was remarkable was how the waiter kept track of what we were eating:

He just writes it down on the paper tablecloth! I’ve never seen this before and was wondering what would have happened if our red wine spill had been a little larger and wiped out his writing. We still see Thomas’ parents regularly and his mom has given us a bunch of stuff to pass along to Thomas. Thomas thanks us as we go outside. He says that a bicycle is the way to get around Paris, walks over to a stand full of Lime bikes, takes one and peddles off. I’m not sure if I would trust myself on a bike with Parisian traffic, but it does look like fun. Steps for the day: 5,800.