Did you know that France is playing in the final of the Davis Cup this weekend, in Lille, France?

The Davis cup ( la coupe Davis) was born in 1899. Dwight Filley Davis, student at Harvard, had the idea of creating an international tennis competition to promote the game of tennis. The first competition ( le premier tournoi) took place between the USA ( les Etats Unis) and England ( l'Angleterre) . There were five matches ( cinq matchs): four singles ( quatre simples) and a double ( un double) . The winning country was to house the competition the following year.
In 1904, three more countries joined in ( trois autres pays): France, Belgium ( la Belgique) and Australia ( l'Australie), little by little more countries joined in.
In 1927, France won for the first time thanks to the musketeers ( les mousquetaires) as the players were called: Jacques Brugnon, Jean Borotra, Henri Cochet and René Lacoste. They dominated international tennis for six years, winning the Davis cup trophy, le Saladier d'Argent ( the silver bowl) six times.

In 1981 the Davis cup got its first sponsor, from then on, the players ( les joueurs) received some money. It attracted more countries to join in, 129 now take part.

Good luck to the French team ( l'équipe de France) this weekend! 

Alliance Française de Bath still has places in some of its French tuition groups and Alliance Française de Bristol is opening a new class shortly so if you think that you are too late to join a French course, you are not! For more info...