Two Weeks in Western Europe - Easiest Way to Find Rooms to Play In and/or Spectate?

HomeBrewer

HomeBrewer

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I'm taking the family through France, northern Italy, Austria, Germany and Amsterdam in November, but I haven't yet found anything like a 'room locator' app to facilitate finding places to play.

Does anyone have advice on how best to find places to play? Also, what tends to be the 'norm' in terms of places being open to the public vs. private 'clubs'?

Obviously I don't expect one answer to be applicable across multiple countries, but figured I'd at least start with a high-level question.

Thanks

P.S. If anyone wants to play in their home, I will happily bring the beverages :)
 
Bob Jewett said:
If no one pipes up... I just took google maps to Milano, typed in "billiard" and got a bunch of rooms as a start. Another way is to ask at the hotel or the taxi driver.
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Thanks Bob. I'm a pretty old school off-the-beaten-path traveler and will resort to these manual techniques as needed! They've worked for me up and down Latin America, Oceania and China, but this time around I'll be stealing time from family to get out and play; the old, 'Duck in, realize it's private/not a carom room/closed on Sundays' thing will be a time suck, so I'll have to extra prep beforehand.

Doesn't sound like there's an 'easy button' answer, so that's at least good to know.
 
I can definitely guide you around Lyon, and there's one poolhall in Paris that I've been to about 5-6 times.

Beyond that, I can tell you that in France, a lot of the places (not all) are "clubs" which are not set up like typical poolhalls in the States. I would guess that Germany, Austria, Italy, etc. are kind of set up the same way. The clubs are not "private" in principle, because generally anyone can go play if a member is there (members usually have a key or passcode to get in anytime). Almost all the players who go have a membership, so it's not "public" in the same sense as an American poolhall. The hours of operation vary, and may not be regular. So, I would suggest calling first before going. I think the phone number to these places is always on their Google listing, I think.

Finally, I would say that you shouldn't hesitate to call up a club to go play, even if it isn't like just walking into a poolhall in the States. In my experience (in France), people are friendly and eager to help if they can. (It helps to try to speak the language when you're breaking the ice....at least in France and Italy, I would say. I hear the Germans, Dutch, and Austrians are pretty fluent in English.)

Good luck!

Feel free to contact me in the private messages.

Oh, the clubs are cheaper to play in...at least in Lyon. If you go to a "regular" public poolhall here you will pay 10-20 euros/hr, but the clubs are less than 5 euros to play as much as you want for the day...until they kick you out to close, and that timing might be hard to predict if you're a visitor.
 
I've read on here that @ShortBusRuss is a good American player who has been based in Germany, so he should be able to help too.

There's some other euros on the site, I think from the Nordic countries...hopefully they will chime in as well.
 
pvc lou said:
I can definitely guide you around Lyon, and there's one poolhall in Paris that I've been to about 5-6 times.

Beyond that, I can tell you that in France, a lot of the places (not all) are "clubs" which are not set up like typical poolhalls in the States. I would guess that Germany, Austria, Italy, etc. are kind of set up the same way. The clubs are not "private" in principle, because generally anyone can go play if a member is there (members usually have a key or passcode to get in anytime). Almost all the players who go have a membership, so it's not "public" in the same sense as an American poolhall. The hours of operation vary, and may not be regular. So, I would suggest calling first before going. I think the phone number to these places is always on their Google listing, I think.

Finally, I would say that you shouldn't hesitate to call up a club to go play, even if it isn't like just walking into a poolhall in the States. In my experience (in France), people are friendly and eager to help if they can. (It helps to try to speak the language when you're breaking the ice....at least in France and Italy, I would say. I hear the Germans, Dutch, and Austrians are pretty fluent in English.)

Good luck!

Feel free to contact me in the private messages.

Oh, the clubs are cheaper to play in...at least in Lyon. If you go to a "regular" public poolhall here you will pay 10-20 euros/hr, but the clubs are less than 5 euros to play as much as you want for the day...until they kick you out to close, and that timing might be hard to predict if you're a visitor.
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Wow, thanks for taking the time to provide so much great detail!

Right now I think my wife has us doing several days in Paris and then a sleeper train to Italy, so I'll likely have to focus on Paris and its surroundings as far as playing in France goes.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Which reminds me... Towns may have a municipal rec center. When I was in France maybe 17 years ago, the small town of Menton (near Monaco) had several tables at the municipal sports hall and they welcomed visitors.
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Thanks Bob!
 
France, northern Italy, Austria, Germany and Amsterdam?
And you want to see pool rooms?
You need help.
 
measureman said:
Wasting time in pool rooms in Europe is what I mean.
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he doesnt actually mean pool and 9 ball crap

he means to see what he cant here is the carom players, it would be a greater waste of a trip for a fan to not visit one while in the "holy land" of billiards

its not something we expect a pool player to understand
 
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measureman said:
Wasting time in pool rooms in Europe is what I mean.
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It may not be a total waste of time.

Texas Carom Club said:
he doesnt actually mean pool and 9 ball crap

he means to see what he cant here is the carom players, it would be a greater waste of a trip for a fan to not visit one while in the "holy land" of billiards

its not something we expect a pool player to understand
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I agree. You might get to see some great billiard players, for one. The other thing is you will get to hang out with the locals doing something you all love...so it can be a way to get to know the culture and the people better than you would by walking through the tourist laden crowds at the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles, or whatever...(edit: watch out for pickpockets at the tourist spots! ...especially in France and Italy)
 
I think the main operating principle is to try to be a good guest.

If you can do that, then people typically are very nice and generous.

That's my hypothesis.

(Edit: I'm pretty that sure I don't have to say that to anyone of you.)
 
HomeBrewer said:
Wow, thanks for taking the time to provide so much great detail!

Right now I think my wife has us doing several days in Paris and then a sleeper train to Italy, so I'll likely have to focus on Paris and its surroundings as far as playing in France goes.
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In Paris, there is Montmartre and a room there I saw.
I believe Bob has actually been in there. I did not go in.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Some of my most lasting memories of Europe are from pool halls.
The old-fashioned snooker hall in London where the old-fashioned counter guy served my tea with milk (1972) and arranged for a playing partner.
The very old-fashioned billiard hall in Paris on the Rue des Capucines where everyone was in coat and tie including me (1972)
View attachment 717487
The billiard hall in Rome where the players were throwing the balls by hand at a form of pin billiards (1983). (There were cues available.)
Several visits to a little cafe in the Paris suburbs where I could actually hold my own against the locals on the small carom table (1983).
My visit mentioned above to Menton, France about 2006 with a couple of other US carom fanatics during one of the Crystal Kelly 3-C tournaments.
My visit to Heinrich Weingartner's billiard school in Vienna where I got balkline lessons from the Austrian and European Champion (2008?)
My game with a Dutch billiard book collector and columnist at a local Dutch hall in which I had a nice run of 30 to beat him.
And four or five visits to local halls on scuba trips around the Caribbean.

Sometimes you can take only so many museums or time in the water.
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There are some small clubs in Europe that have been around for 100 yrs. Can’t recall exactly but I believe a few in Switzerland
I had a few on screenshot in the past, places pavlos would go recloth tables . Several billiard rooms over 100yrs old quite an incredible thing that I would be honored to visit if ever the chance occurred.
 
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Bob Jewett said:
...

I was there with the same fanatics as in Menton but a different trip. One of those fanatics talked us through the gate with a story about writing for Billiards Digest. The same guy talked NASA into using one of his fancy knots on the ship's bell on the space station. He talks good. He ties knots good, too.
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I doubt that any club de billard would have some "gate" put up that you would have to "talk your way through." I would guess that someone or several among your NASA posse was/were being pushy somehow.

Did you guys push real hard on the "myth bust" claim that soft tips impart the same action on cueball spin as hard tips?

lol
 
Bob Jewett said:
Naw. There was a guy at the front at Clichy in like a teller's booth and you had to be a member to enter. I suspect it was due to the gambling room in the back. You may have had to buy a visitor's membership to be official -- I think that's what I did when I visited on a previous trip. It's the same in London at "The Hurricane Room" but you don't have to pass a security guy. You do have to be a member for certain things and a good rate.

There was no discussion of the finer points of billiard mechanics in Paris. ;)
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A teller's booth to regulate traffic because of gambling? I have been around old timers of the game for the last 6-7 years...many of whom are in their 80's and 90's (for example Roget Cornet in Lyon what 10 years old during WW2)...and none of them have recounted stories of gambling at French billiards. Some of these old timers are former local champions and have been around world champions like Cousepel, so I trust their testimony. Meanwhile, I've told all these old timers that I'm an American pool player, and that back in the States we like to play for money, including myself. Well, they never piped up to tell me about money games in France...so I must assume that it was never really a thing. So the story of the gambling room in the back is a thing that I have never hear about around here.

As for the "billiards membership to be official"...what does "official"l mean? I just wanted to hit balls, and they always let me hit balls, and they never asked me if I was an "official" guy..and they let me become a member anytime I asked.

As for London, I don't know about that since I have never played there. But your version of how it goes down in France is inaccurate, IMHO.

As for the finer points of billiard mechanics in Paris...well, the finer points of billiard mechanics in Paris are the same all over France, in Belgium, in the Netherlands, all over Europe, and believe or not, even in the States...as a physicist, these finer points of billiard mechanics are true even in other galaxies. Winkie face.

Love,

Lou
 
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Bob Jewett said:
Sorry, I didn't write clearly. The gambling I was referring to was the casino in the back room at Clichy. Roulette, card games, maybe slot machines -- I only saw it briefly a long time ago. I'm sure it was the major source of income for the place. Maybe it still is. Sorry for the confusion.

As for the French gambling at carom, at one time it was the thing to do. Hoppe had some American backers when he beat Maurice Vignaux and one of those backers tipped Hoppe $50,000 according to Hoppe's autobiography. On the other hand, no one has ever suggested a money game to me in France.
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I believe the Hoppe vs. Vignaux business wasn't pure gambling...there was a world title on the line.
 
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