Paris (AFP)

The clubs are cleaned, the rackets are ready: golf and tennis enthusiasts are impatient with the idea of ​​being able to resume their favorite sports activity on Monday after two months of confinement and despite the very strict health directives which modify their practice.

Children, active or retired adults, more or less enlightened amateurs, they are all in a hurry to find short and short courses to be able to let off steam but also find friends.

The director of the Bluegreen France golf network, Pascal Locatelli, is expecting a rush. "People were very attentive to the reopening, they are impatient to play and our courses are filling up. On the first days, we will fill up, that's obvious," he told AFP. .

However, the local authorities (mayors, prefects) must have authorized the reopening of the facilities.

In Lyon, it's good. "The reservations started Thursday morning and I connected at 9am. I have a short! But for Tuesday because everything was taken for Monday ...", rejoices Olivier Mazzella, a 44-year-old logistics director, member of the TC Lyon.

In Nice, Agathe, a 15-year-old high school student, is also looking forward to playing golf and tennis again: "I want to run and let off steam. I won't start again on Monday, but I want to resume golf as soon as possible with my father and tennis with my friends. "

"What I especially miss are the friends with whom I play! We play two against two and the losers pay to drink", abounds William Jean, retired air force colonel who, at 77 years old, is still used to playing three golf courses a week with his group of friends.

- Pitchs in the garden -

Colonel Jean hopes to replay Wednesday, the time to return to Paris from his country house. "I had fun in the garden doing little strokes of approach, but at my age, it will be hard to start again after two months of complete stop, especially driving!", He underlines.

In golf as in tennis, in addition to maintaining the closure of all convivial spaces, one of the new conditions of play is the ban on touching opposing balls. In tennis in particular, where only singles games are allowed, each player must have previously marked his balls to only touch them, especially in service.

Also, Olivier Mazzella believes that this problem solved, the authorization to play tennis could have intervened earlier. "In singles, if you don't want to see your opponent, you don't see him!", He pleads.

And if the difficulty of replaying in the Paris region, where the circulation of the virus is considered important, is understood, it is less so as far as the province is concerned.

Member of three tennis clubs, in the Paris region, on the Atlantic coast and in champagne, Marjorie Debin, HR manager, 41, wonders: "When you are confined to a couple, I don't see the problem that there can be having to play as a couple in a small champagne club ... ", considers this player who generally practices twice a week.

- Niet is niet -

Golf instructor in Paris, Clément Dortu, 40, has an answer. "This is the problem of the breach: everyone is rushing, he explains. If we open up golf, we will say why not tennis, then why not horse riding, and so on. it is niet, let it be niet for everyone! "

Personally, he is impatiently waiting to play again, but his feeling is "mixed" because the reopening of golf schools is more complicated because of the risk of groupings. "For me, it's my job above all. I obviously want to go back to the courses but also to work, he explains. But I will have done a course before May 20, for sure ! "

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