Attention rubgy fans! Are you an aficionado of "the ruffian's game played by gentlemen?" Are you thinking about heading to France for the 2007 Rugby World Cup? Surely you want to be on hand to see if England will keep their champion standing, or watch as some other country wrests the top spot away from them. France, Australia, and New Zealand were right in there for the 2003 Cup; they will surely be back in force. And who knows? There is always the possibility that a team could come out of nowhere and prevail. No way you want to miss any of that action!



If the thought has turned into a definite plan to attend some if not all of the September 7-October 20 mega-event, you better get your tickets (one place you can try is the main event site at www.france2007.fr). But don't stop there! Now is also the time to nail down your living arrangements. Wait too long, and the search for good accommodations will make you feel like you're in the middle of a scrum yourself.

If you are anywhere near serious about getting as immersed in the games as you can, the last thing you want to do is deal with arranging multiple accommodations and then bounce around from venue to venue with luggage in hand. Your best bet for maximum rugby enjoyment is to rent a short term apartment for the duration of your visit and use it as your base camp. And your best bet for base camp is Paris.

With the great train service and central location of the French capital city, having an apartment that you can call home will let you make forays into the countryside to take in however many games your stamina can handle and then return to regroup. You can easily ride the Chunnel train to get the Cardiff and Edinburgh games if you are a real hard core fan. Sometimes, though, you won't have to travel too far: A number of games (including the semi-finals and finals) are scheduled at venues in the Paris metro area.

With all the advantages of Paris (oh, and there are other interesting things there besides rugby stadiums), there is one disadvantage: vacation apartments will be at a premium, if they aren't already. Places with good amenities in interesting neighborhoods and enough space for your whole party are getting snapped up as you read this.

If you are any kind of rugby fan, you have a responsibility to be in the best shape possible to go nuts rooting for the team(s) of choice. This means that you need to pay as much attention to your between-game experience as you do to your in-stadium one. Your best strategy? Follow up your ticket purchase by nailing down a place you can hang out between games. Right now.