You couldn't make this stuff up........

Off to the Races!

Race day at Longchamp started seamlessly as we walked 300 metres to the free and frequent shuttle bus service to the racecourse. Everyone was given a free-entry voucher as we got off the bus. The grounds were immaculate. All was lush greenery and tasteful flowerbeds.

As it was our first visit to a French race course and my first ever visit to any race course, we spent half an hour reading the programme, studying how to put on a bet, memorising the vocab. Then it was off to the parade ring to study the horses.
Ah yes, this was more like it. Frisky, shiny thoroughbreds and mini men.

My criteria for best bets were the usual.... Best name, best colours (nothing too garish), best mane and best number. It had to be "Strive", no 4, in pink and green. Right, off to the bookies' counter to place the bet ... but they were not open.... How does this work, then? Perhaps in another part of the building..?

Then the shouting broke out. For some reason the horses and riders weren't making it through to the track. What was all the noise and milling about in aid of? Ah yes, of course! The bookies and counter clerks were on strike! They were not working on Sunday as a protest, on my behalf apparently, against deteriorating race course conditions and automatic betting machines, which I discovered I was also not in favour of. On hearing that it was impossible to place a bet, 100 hard-core punters - the rolled-up newspaper brigade- had staged a "mouvement social" and blockaded the passageway from paddock to track to stop any racing at all. How French was this!?

Everyone joined in: jockeys (you will all recognise Thierry Gillet), TV crews, course managers, spectators. How long was this going to go on for? Should we make our way home? The French are amazingly accepting of strikes and demonstrations. They shrug their shoulders and carry on as normal. They know that, as sure as eggs is eggs, they themselves will be on strike within the next 10 months and they hope for the same discreet approval in their turn.
At Longchamp, parents queued up patiently with their children for the Shetland pony rides or sat around eating picnics. It was a real family day out - one of the very few places in Paris that children can run about with grass under their feet.

TWO HOURS later.... the racing began....and what do you think....?

Strive won in a photo finish. 30 euros to me !!