Salle du Jeu de Paume

Salle du Jeu de Paume is a name that carries two very different meanings depending on where you are in France. In Versailles, the building stands as a monument to history rather than sport. It was constructed under Louis XIV and is now classified as a historical monument, a museum of the French Revolution where the Tennis Court Oath was sworn. The stone court inside is no longer an active sports facility, and the structure has no seating capacity for spectators. It is a place for tourism and education, far removed from the noise of a modern game.

However, the figure of 2,525 seats belongs to a much newer venue in Blois. This sports arena opened in September 2017 at the avenue de Châteaudun. It is a contemporary facility built to host basketball games for ADA Blois Basket 41 in the Pro B league, alongside cultural events. The database entry often conflates these two distinct entities, but the sports hall in Blois is a completely separate project from the 17th-century royal hall in Versailles. The historical site has no official website for sports events, as it is managed by the EPV as a cultural institution.

The connection between the two is not geographical but linguistic. The name refers to the original game of jeu de paume, played on the hard stone surface in Versailles centuries ago. Today, that surface is preserved as a relic, while the modern arena in Blois uses a synthetic or hybrid surface for its games. The capacity of 2,525 refers strictly to the Blois venue, which is the only one of the two that functions as an active sports ground.