Great May Day Out at Hippodrome de la Varenne, Paray-Le-Monial - Tuesday 1/5/12

At last, the sun shone for almost the first time in 4 weeks and the May Day Bank Holiday here in France is hopefully the start of the good weather to come. As I am working next Monday, the Glasgow bank holiday, I took today as a holiday and we grabbed the opportunity to go to the horse-racing at Paray Le Monial. What a day, it was superb. Racing in France is completely different from the UK, there are no on-course bookmakers and you can bet only with the pari-mutuel odds, a bit like the tote back in the UK. There were 9 races in total, all different styles - trotting with carts behind, trotting with jockeys on board, sprinting like the UK and steeplechase like the UK. Never thought we would enjoy it as much as we did! Likely because out of the 8 races (we left before the last one), I won 4 of them (Jim didn't bet at all!) so I was €30 up and the fun day cost us nothing. The race course was quite primitive, but very well kept, with stalls for drink, food and even a restaurant where you can have 3 courses for €15, before the racing. The next meeting is on 20th May - we will definitely be back unless the weather is hot enough for swimming in the pool!