Racing Days.

Paris keeps its racing inside the city limits, in the two great woods on either side of it. That is unusual, and it makes a race day one of the few genuinely Parisian outings that costs you no travelling time at all. Your chauffeur collects you after lunch and has you trackside before the first race.

ParisLongchamp, in the Bois de Boulogne, is the flat racing cathedral. Rebuilt behind a vast glass grandstand, it stages the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on the first Sunday of October, the richest turf race in Europe and the one weekend when the whole of racing society is in Paris at once.

Auteuil, a few minutes away, is the jumps course. Steeplechase over hedges and water, closer to the crowd and considerably louder, with the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris in late May. It is the more atmospheric of the two, and the easier introduction if nobody in the party has been racing before.

Vincennes, east of the city, runs harness racing under floodlights through the winter. The Prix d'Amérique in late January fills the stands on a cold Sunday and is the single biggest day in French trotting. Evening meetings there make an unexpected alternative to a restaurant.

We arrange enclosure access and hospitality where the meeting offers it, and we brief you before departure on what each course expects: ParisLongchamp asks for jacket and tie in the members' areas on the big days, Auteuil and Vincennes are relaxed. Your chauffeur stays on site for the whole meeting, which matters more than it sounds. The car park empties badly after the last race, and you leave while everyone else is still queueing.