We celebrated Chris’s birthday a little early this year by heading to the Ryder Cup at the end of September.  For all of you non-golf followers out there, the Ryder Cup is a biennial tournament between a team from Europe and a team from The United States.  This year, the tournament was held just outside of Paris, and Chris decided that there was no better way to celebrate his 31st birthday than by cheering on our favorite Stars and Bars golfers.

Lodging: Having been to Paris twice this summer, we opted for a small bed and breakfast outside the city but close to Le Golf National (this is actually the name of the course and not our obnoxious way of pronouncing ‘golf’ like Pepe Le Pew).  The B&B was quintessentially French – cozy but simple interior design, lovely gardens, and hosts which were generous and kind but who also spoke no English.  It was perfect.  The town, on the other hand, was a little less charming, but in the end, we weren’t there for the town but rather for the golf.

The Upsides of the Tournament: Le Golf National is a relatively new course and was built with spectatorship in mind.  Many of the holes are constructed so that viewers could watch from a stadium-like arena without having to be in artificially constructed grandstands.  This, coupled with perfect weather, made for optimal viewing, and we were lucky enough to see many of our favorite golfers up close and personal.  The Ryder Cup is also one of the rowdier tournaments around, and though we were certainly outnumbered by Europeans, we still managed to get in a few good U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A chants.

The (ever-so-slight) Downsides of the Tournament: The Ryder Cup was unfortunately slammed with people, and because there are only four groups of golfers in each round of play, there were a lot fewer holes with live action at any given time than in a traditional tournament.  We had a good tactic of skipping ahead a few holes to maximize our viewing, but this led to a bit of downtime (which was a blessing in disguise considering the bathroom and concession lines).  In the end, the only real downside was that the good guys couldn’t pull off a W and keep the cup back home in The States.

The Cherry on Top: In reality, the golf was good, but the company was better.  Thanks to the power of social media, we learned that Chris’s high school friend, Johnny, and his wife, Caroline, would be flying over from DC to attend the Ryder Cup on the same day.  What are the odds?!  We had an absolute blast catching up, and we were once again reminded that the world is a lot smaller than it seems.