the Union of French Societies
Athletic Sports
Founded by Stade Français and Racing Club de France, the USFSA has left several memorial and heritage traces in Paris.
Café Procope
It was in the legendary Café Procope, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, that a great sporting adventure began. In 1883, a few students from the Lycée Saint-Louis met there to found Stade Français, one of the very first multi-sport clubs in the capital. A commemorative plaque, visible inside the café, marks this birth.
A few years later, in 1887, Stade Français joined forces with Racing Club de France to create the Union of French Running Societies (USFCP), which became the Union of French Athletic Sports Societies (USFSA) in 1889. This organization, open to new sports – rugby, field hockey, fencing, swimming – structured the nascent French sporting landscape.
It was within this union that Pierre de Coubertin became actively involved, becoming secretary of the USFSA. There he implemented his innovative ideas on the educational and moral role of sport, while developing a national and international vision of its practice.
Pheasantry Estate
Since 1901, Stade Français has found its home in the heart of the Faisanderie estate, in the Saint-Cloud national park. This emblematic place, steeped in history and nature, then became a major venue for Parisian sport.
From 1902 onwards, the facilities multiplied: football-rugby pitches, tennis courts, athletics track… a veritable complex before its time!
The Faisanderie experienced its golden age in the 1910s and 1920s, when the club organised the prestigious World Clay Court Tennis Championships, welcoming the biggest names: Suzanne Lenglen, Bill Tilden, Max Decugis, and Anthony Wilding.
This is where a major page in the history of tennis was written: before the creation of the Roland-Garros Stadium in 1928, the Faisanderie was the beating heart of French tennis.
A place of innovation, Stade Français also opened its competitions to women as early as 1917, contributing to the rise of women's sport.
Even today, the estate retains this pioneering spirit with its 36 tennis courts, outdoor swimming pool, and rugby and football pitches, in a green and historically rich setting.
Photo credit: @StadeFrançais
Bois de Boulogne
It was in the Saint-Lazare train station, during the year 1882, that a group of students from the Lycée Condorcet, passionate about running, founded the Racing Club, soon known as the Racing Club de France. Born from their training in the Bois de Boulogne, the Racing Club de France was among the first French multi-sport clubs, a symbol of the sporting dynamism of Parisian youth.
A visionary, he made sport a true art of living and a symbol of Parisian elegance. Four years later, in 1886, the club moved to the Bois de Boulogne, to the bucolic site of La Croix-Catelan, which quickly became a major center of French sport.
In 1888, the Union of French Running Societies (USFCP) — ancestor of the USFSA — organised the first French Athletics Championships there, marking the beginning of a long sporting tradition.
Two years later, the story took on a global dimension: in 1900, La Croix-Catelan hosted several athletics events of the Paris Olympic Games, under the impetus of Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic movement.
Even today, the spirit of Racing lives on. Its headquarters, located on rue Éblé in the 7th arrondissement, recalls the unbreakable link between Paris, sport and the Olympic legacy.