Jacky BARNAULT is one of the essential figures of padel French. Club president padel of Cassis, he was one of the first to trust the padel in 2004. But the realization of his club was an adventure.

padel blackcurrant jackyCan you explain to us how you fell in the bath of padel ?

A tennis enthusiast for many years, I “switched” to golf, following an artroscopy of the knee (meniscus). I had therefore (definitively) stopped racket sports, It was only a few months before ceasing my professional activity and leaving AIX en Provence for Cassis, that I discovered the Padel.

Adherents since ten years of one of the most beautiful Sports Club of France "SET CLUB" (18 tennis courts, 12 squash courts, 18 golf holes, equestrian center, 3 pools, etc.) j I saw to my great surprise that we sacrificed 3 tennis courts, to build instead, an "entanglement" of windows and fences, the worst effect!

A few weeks later, I saw for the first time 4 people playing Padel.

The president of this new game and former tennis teacher (The no less well-known Jean-Marc Lenoir) did not fail to invite me to discover this sport completely unknown in France, but honestly, to watch, I never had the less desire to try!

Until the day he asked me to replace him, because he had supposedly an urgent appointment, He put his racket in my hands (rather weird, like a big ping-pong racket, or a beach racket ) and I made the first exchanges with the remaining 3 partners. The ball is a real tennis ball, and I very quickly experienced extraordinary sensations, a real "love at first sight" I had never experienced such pleasure in the sport.

I had caught the “PADELMANIA ”.

Why did you develop padel in Cassis?

 Unfortunately, I had to move some time later to Cassis.

I quickly found myself faced with the following paradox: living in Aix-en-Provence, I went regularly to Cassis to enjoy the sea, and now that I lived in Cassis, I regularly went to AIX to play Padel.

So I had to find a solution, and the only one that could satisfy me was to create a Padel in Cassis. Not knowing anyone in this small village of 8500 inhabitants, and with an estimate of € 25000, the bet was not won. For months I knocked on every door, the French Federation of Padel, banks, sports shops, the Town Hall, traders, etc. But how do you get someone interested in a sport that nobody knows about, and especially that nobody talks about.

And then one day I discovered by chance on the Peninsula of Cassis completely unoccupied tennis courts, I obtained after several procedures with the manager (Ms. Huguette Bertolotti) the promise to have one of these courts to install a padel.

I contacted the President of the French Federation of Padel to know the best way to get a structure for padel, since now I had the land, and the latter, a Parisian in love with Cassis (Mr Jacques LAFRONT, former vice president of the French Federation of Padel) promised to meet me with the manager during her next visit to Cassis.

I thought I was holding my padel ! Unfortunately when the three of us met on the tennis court supposed to host this famous tennis court. padel, one of the three asked: “But who will finance the € 25000?"Everyone looked at each other and I realized that my dream was flying ...

It was only 6 months later that the miracle took place. The "famous" (Jacques Lafront) asked me on the phone: " Mr Barnault, do you still want to install a padel in Cassis? »

The general council had indeed offered 2 PADEL at the TCM (Tennis Club de Marseille) and these 2 PADEL took up a lot of space and in this case the place where tents were set up each year for the awards ceremony and the cocktail party for the annual Tennis Club de Marseille tournament.

So I was asked if I still wanted to dismantle within 2 days one of the 2 padel and put it back where I wanted, which I did with the help of a friend on Pentecost Monday 2004.

For information a Padel is made up of 50 panes each weighing 50 kg, and around 2 tonnes of wire mesh and metal structure ...

 It took us more than 15 days to put it back together.

And the padel was finally born in Cassis. Today we have a lot of players from padel including Didier Deschamps, to such an extent that it was necessary to put a second ground.

padel memories of Cassis fruit

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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