We always used to go to Salisbury Races together, so we looked out for a race meeting over here and found one at Pompadour, an hour south of John and Sue's house. It was a bit bigger than Limoges, with a main stand with a restaurant on the top floor, and a stewards box at the finish line, unlike the cherry picker they use at Limoges. This meeting was also a mixture of flat racing and point to point, which is like National Hunt in England, but without rails in places.
We managed to find seats next right by the winning post, and had great views as they went over the jumps, and one fall ( no-one hurt, animal lovers). I'd only ever been to one NH meeting before, at Wincanton, where you were in a box stand a bit far away from the action.
Pompadour is one of the homes of the French national stud, and also to a magnificent chateau, which is almost as big as the rest of the town put together.
The betting on the course was PMU, the French version of the tote, so we were all doing the minimum €2 bet. On the first race, I couldn't decide between two horses, so I did a forecast which came in. Being the Tote, I had no idea how much I had one, so I queued up for ten minutes to receive €2.60 back. Well worth it. All of us picked at least one winner, and I managed 4, so I ended up 3 Euros up on the day. Hurrah, no need to go back to work next week!
Sue picked the best priced horse of the day(7/1) , but we didn't have time to put a bet on that race. Still, it was a good day out, and we managed to avoid most of the showers by hiding in the stand.
While they were all over here it was Lizzie's birthday, so we all did a trip on the velo-rail as one of her birthday wishes. The velo-rail, is a big 5 seater, 4 wheel push bike that goes along the, disused, railway lines. The carriages are quite heavy and it's about 8km each way from Roumazieres to Manot and back. Also railway lines are a lot more up and down hill than you would think, so it is hard work.
We shared the work between three of us in each carriage, but on the way back I started to go purple trying to get us up a hill, while Lizzie's legs were going round like Roadrunner at full pelt. It turned out that the chain had come of on Lizzie's side, so we had to stop to do some running repairs. Another new skill on my CV. After that it was plain sailing, and we even got the girls home in time to watch Neighbours.
We've been back to Bordeaux again, to watch Die Hard 4, which was great, although one quick reading Frenchman was getting to the gags before Bruce Willis could deliver his lines, getting his laugh in early. Also, the translation of the Yippe-kay- aye M.... F.. line was a bit different on translation ( .. connard ) . While we where there we took the opportunity to go back to La Tupina for lunch. This time it was the €32 menu for 3 courses and a bottle 3 glasses of wine each. Well worth it.
We've also been out and about locally, to a local night market at Montrbron. The market was a bit arts and crafts but it was a great atmosphere. The whole town centre was blocked off, with bars and restaurants spilling out onto every available bit of pavement. Very good, apart from the fact that it was my turn to drive.
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