Racket vs Camera

It's getting warmer day by day. The time has come. Let's warm up your body which has been stiffed during winter.
You can enjoy sport with friends, without paying a bunch of money to do it. Here in Japan, the old play a gate ball (Japan originated cricket like sport) or children play football. They look so happy.

In the meantime talking about Paris, I must start with Petanque. Usually, it's played in singles, doubles and triples. A small wooden ball, called Cochonnet, is thrown at first. Then each player in each team throw their own steal ball to place closer to the Cochonnet than opponent's ball.
It's not hard sport. So we tend to think Petanque is the sport for the old. But it's absolutely wrong. Petanque has population to play with. From the young to the old, people throw the balls at twilight park. I think Petanque is a scenery of France itself.

However Petanque might be the sport for adults. So which sport is popular for children in Paris? I think it's a table tennis. Most of the parks in Paris have a concrete made ping-pong table. Children come together around it and play one after another.

My photo work "Service" is consisted of two pictures. In the fine afternoon, I was reading a news paper on the bench in the park. Shortly, a boy came by and got start exercise of table tennis by himself. It's just little bit early for gathering little ping-pong players. So he was the first comer on the day.
However think about it. It's very hard exercising ping-pong without partner. Unfortunately, I didn't bring racket with me but camera. But I thought I can pick up his ball at least. So I joined his training.

I hold my camera at receiver's position. The moment waiting the service made me very nerves? My heart beat getting faster when I looked into the finder. I heard only rustling of leaves. His motion was stopped in a silence.
But at the next moment, his racket was swung quickly. I rose up my upper body consciously. Without any moment, his fast service bounced on the very edge of the table.

Even if I had a racket, I could not return it. But I was satisfied with capturing his fast service in the photos. This is my receive.
Before long, children gathered. The ping-pong table in the park became full as usual.