You can buy pretty easily online but if memory serves, you can't buy them until March time - or about 2 months before the event itself. I only bought ground passes but I did get to see a couple of Joko's matches on her way to the semi :)
One note, if you're one that likes to carry their pims around Wimbledon, unfortunately, there are rather small and rare dedicated areas to consume your pims (or rose in this case).
It's very easy to get to on the metro, although like Wimbledon it takes a minute from the center. The area around RG is nice, it really depends on how much time you'll be spending in Paris vs RG.
Thanks Lord B. Heard horror stories of being 500K in queue when they go on sale! I'm happy with ground passes.
I went a number of years ago but even though the ticket queue number was high, I did get through it fine. I got centre court tickets for 2 or 3 days but wandered around the outside courts. It was the year Delpo came back from another injury and he was stuck on a small outside court so it was packed!
The Parisians were very Parisian (I.e weren't too pleased as speaking English!) I stayed nowhere near the venue but on a direct metro line because I also wanted do non tennis stuff.
It was the year Rafa won his 10th title. I wanted to see Rafa play.
-- Edited by Blue_Belle on Tuesday 28th of November 2023 07:53:54 PM
-- Edited by Blue_Belle on Tuesday 28th of November 2023 07:55:25 PM
Just got back. Managed to get front row for Norrie and Boulter. Rain was pretty frustrating and queues for outside courts were crazy at times. Really needed to be on your toes to get match you wanted.
Overall for me its the worst of the 3 grand slam events Ive been too, but weather may have clouded my judgement a bit. Organisation not great, nowhere near enough gates opened to get in. Was queuing for about 40 minutes outside grounds. Dont really like layout of the grounds either. Can walk for ages without even seeing a court, and when it rains you have nowhere to shelter.
That and the fact the Brits cant play on clay I wont be hurrying back.
Went to Roland Garros 2nd week - beautiful weather & not a drop of rain so had a really good time. Stayed in an Airbnb about 20 mins walk away, which was much cheaper than a hotel.
Seagull - I can see that it would have been a very different experience in the rain - there's no cover unless you've got a seat in Philippe Chatrier or Suzanne Lenglen
Queues to get in weren't generally too bad despite the daily bag searches, pat downs & ID checks (this happened about 50% of the time). All tickets are mobile for the first time this year, so I didn't risk buying from non-authorised sellers. Tickets were very difficult to get hold of and purchased from the RG app. I was about 360,000 in the queue for the 1st sale in mid-March & no chance to purchase until the tickets for the show courts ran out after 4 hours. Similarly, no joy in the resale in early May. A few weeks later, the ongoing resale opened (you can sell your tickets back to RG via the app (minus 10%) at anytime. I spent hours on the app playing what seemed to be a weird, addictive computer game at all hours for a week or so in order to a ticket per day for the days I wanted. Frustratingly, the website blocks you after a while cos it thinks you're a robot (but then I probably button clicked 1000s of times) and you have to wait a while to get back in. Even resale tickets became impossible to buy in the last few weeks - tickets still go into the resale, but it doesn't seem humanly possible to be quick enough to succeed in buying them, except perhaps ground passes.
Tickets for the 2nd week are split into day and evening, which is fine for me since I wouldn't be ale to watch tennis from 11am till the early hours, and I'm the sort of person that watches everything if I've bought a ticket (although as I've got older, I will occasionally walk out of a poor music gig!). The only issue with these day/night only tickets is that there is a somewhat chaotic & busy changeover period in the grounds late afternoon.
The crowds I thought were very well behaved - probably much helped by the alcohol ban courtside after Iga's post match comments in the 1st week.
The general RG experience seemed relaxed, casual and cheerful (helped by the weather I'm sure). Lots of youngsters working the stands and dotted around to help with directions and advice etc. Food and beer good (young lads with beer rucksacks wandering around and automated taps other places). Filled baguettes, salads & cake easy to get hold of at a premium price, but you can bring your own food & drink in. Only complaint was the queues at the Lavazza coffee stands
Saw lots of good matches, although sadly not Alcaraz v Sinner. My last day was the Friday men's semis, for which I had an evening ticket (Zverev v Ruud). Could see Carlos's match in the afternoon though albeit on the big screen which was put up in Suzanne Lenglen. Also, on the last few days any ticket, including a ground pass (25 euros) gives you free access everywhere but P-C court, and there's still lots going on with dubs, legends, wheelchair & juniors so I caught some of Joe, Neal, McEnroe, Tsonga, Bahrami, Leconte, Alfie etc.
Earlier in the week I was able to see a little of the juniors - Hannah, Mimi, Mika, Ben & Charlie on the outside courts.
In summary, much to recommend, so long as the sun shines
so had a really good time. Stayed in an Airbnb about 20 mins walk away, which was much cheaper than a hotel.
