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When you spend time at Roland Garros, you can also find time to tour the museums and patronize those extraordinary sidewalk cafes. One simply cannot get enough of Paris this time of the year.

Out on the clay courts, which remind you of yesteryear in Georgia when clay was the preferred surface for tennis competition, this week you were reminded that things are depressingly different.

The venue has not changed. Paris may be a little different, but it has not changed. The Eifel Tower, which the French hate, has not changed and those sidewalk cafes and strolls by the Seine offer an avenue of breathlessness just like it has always been.

However, Americans do not dominate tennis as in the past. Roland Garros has always been a center of international activity over the years. There were times when you might have thought that the United Nations was meeting here.

“Worldwide, tennis is probably the third most popular sport in the world, but we lose so many potential tennis players to other sports in the U. S.,” says former Georgia tennis coach, Manuel Diaz. “Take Atlanta for example. Atlanta has more recreational tennis players than any city in the country. ALTA (Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association) is the leading tennis organization in the U. S., maybe the world, but a professional tournament here failed to make it. Everybody plays, but nobody goes to watch as it is in most other countries.”

While that is regrettable, I, nonetheless, appreciate the passion that the French have for the sport and their celebrated championship. My regret is that my time has passed, and I can no longer make an annual trip to Paris and not only enjoy the best in Grand Slam tennis competition, but the ancillary trimmings that Paris offers. Gee, how dazzling that was.