As spring emerges in Paris and the basketball courts begin to fill again, Luca Howes reflects on his own relationship with the game.

The one thing that unites Canadians from all provinces and backgrounds, hockey is a cultural institution, a shared language and a source of both pride and heartbreak. In Québec, hockey takes on an even deeper significance. While the Montreal Canadiens have long been the face of professional hockey in the province, the departure of the Québec Nordiques in 1995 left a lasting void – one that some hope may soon be filled in an unexpected way…

As a lifelong Everton fan, there’s nothing I love more than watching a struggling top-flight team with unpopular owners muddle their way through a season. This has made Valencia CF feel like a home away from home for the past few months. I have been to the Mestalla Stadium to watch Los Ches twice and am excited to be heading there again next week. 

A Cambridge student with a niche hobby – who would have thought? Since I was eight, I have been an avid geocacher. Put simply, Geocaching involves using your phone (in my day, a GPS) to locate over three million hidden boxes across the globe. Some are as small as fingernails; others are large canisters. All contain a logbook where you write your name before re-hiding the cache for other players.

Manchester United vs Manchester City, Inter vs A.C. Milan, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) vs… who? Such is the puzzle of France’s capital. Unlike other European football metropolises, there is no local derby, just the PSG hegemony and a slew of smaller clubs duking it out in lower leagues. However, one club based in the 13th Arrondissement, Paris F.C., is climbing the French footballing pyramid to hopefully ignite an intra-city rivalry.

I step into the metro carriage. It is quiet, as expected on a cold November afternoon. I ride the line 11 almost all the way to the ring road surrounding the city, which squeezes its 2.1 million inhabitants into a space suited for half that number. The metro line is faster than those I’m used to; the carriage sways uncertainly, as if it could topple at any moment. There’s a woman sitting opposite eating chicken wings from a grease-stained bag and the man perched next to me is watching an American sitcom with French subtitles, smiling slightly at his large phone screen.

The Vélib’ beeps, confirming my departure. I mount the bike and pedal slowly down Avenue René-Coty. I want to savour this moment: the slight chill of the breeze and my relative anonymity compared to the couples chatting in the bars along my route; a quiet period of self-reflection before the night begins.

In the first instalment of her column Berlin Bulletin, German columnist Sophie Clare begins to share the hidden sides of Germany’s capital. In her exhilarating account, Sophie takes us on a tour of Berlin’s history through the exciting story of Formula E at the world-famous Tempelhof air field.

Jenny Frost revisits her experience of watching the Giro d’Italia in Siena, reminiscing about her life in cycling along the way.