A day at the races

After a disappointing previous weekend weather-wise, the sun was back this beautiful Saturday. Our original plan had been to go skiing today, but in the end we decided to move that to Sunday instead. But we did get up pretty early for a change, so decided to take up Stephane and Sandra on their offer to have breakfast at our favorite P.M.U. in Cros de Cagnes.

As we had our coffee and Croissant, we mused on how good life can be in our little part of the world, I could’ve spent hours sitting on that terrace, just chilling out and drinking coffee… Things continued in a similar fashion with a vey nice lunch on the balcony (the first one this year!).

During our walk little escapade to Cros de Cagnes, we’d spotted a poster saying the town of Cagnes had organized an “open day” at the Hippodrome, which we decided to take advantage of. The hippodrome is actually one of the most famous landmarks at Cagnes, and it’s indeed the main horse racing venue on the Cote d’Azur (and indeed, one of the main ones in Europe for the trot). I’d visited the hippodrome for the yearly food and wine fare, but never for the real thing.

We showed up just in time for the 2nd last race of the day. It was quite an exciting, if short, couple of minutes. The length of the races is only 1600 meters, so it’s not going to take very long. It sort of reminded me of the Tours de France, which is also quite short-lasting fun…

After the race, we listened for a while to the band providing a bit of entertainment, after which I decided to head down to make some bets. I of course had no idea how to place a bet (not to mention which horse to bet for), so I decided to recruit the help of a local. After scanning the crowd, I selected a crafty-looking old fellow, who seemed to know what he was doing (who knows, he might even have mafia connections?). So, I placed a cautious bet of 5 Euros on horse number 10 (I was indeed being quite conservative – I bet on the horse being in the top three rather than winning).

So with more at stake for the 2nd race, I was feeling the excitement rising. This time too, the race went by very quickly – I have to admit to my shame I never even spotted my horse during the race. Perhaps that’s because I was looking at (and photographing!) the leading horses – whereas poor number 10 finished far down the field… Oh well, at least I tried….

So, another “thing to do before you die on the Cote d’Azur” ticket off the list, then ;-). And it was kinda good fun, especially since we really were blessed with excellent weather. In spite of me losing 5 Euros!