We are continuing our exploration of horseracing outside of Paris with the St. Cloud racecourse. While we are in Paris the end of March there will be a race there and I am wondering what the best, easiest way to get there via public transport is. I have looked at the france-galop website, but would like to hear from anyone who may have been there or have info about it.

No, but i'm planning to.

One solution is to take one of the suburban trains from Gare Saint-Lazare to the stop to Le Val d'Or and walk from there. Use www.transilien.com to check schedules. The L train goes there direct.

There are many buses that go near there but without knowing where you'd be coming from it is impossible to suggest a route. However, you can plan your own journey using the ratp route planner, keeping in mind it is time and date sensitive and is set to Paris time. It also defaults to the next departure (possibly involving numerous and/or awkward transfers) so scroll forward or backward in time and you'll find the most convenient route:

http://www.ratp.fr/itineraires/fr/ra...herche-avancee

There are also horse racing courses in Vincennes, Longchamps and the Hippodrome d'Auteuil.

I appreciate your reply. I will look into those websites. I was looking at the ratp and it showed using a car as well, but I did access your link and was able to get to St. Cloud by metro and tram.
We have already been to Longchamps and it looks as though the only flat racing that is being held in the Paris region while we are there will be at St. Cloud.

opaldog:

I went to the Saint Cloud race course one afternoon in May 2007 when I stayed in Paris.

I took a train from the Gare Lazare station. I can't recall how long the trip took or the round-trip cost but both were negligible. At the time (a Monday) the races began at 2:00 pm.

When I got to the Saint Cloud train station, no one knew what I was talking about when I mentioned the race course, neither travelers, teenagers, or the newspaper/magazine seller. (Maybe I should've used the word "hippodrome" when asking for help.)

Not the best of beginnings.

I walked outside, not far from the station, seeking a cab, but I waited at least a half hour, almost giving up on the venture, until a young woman cab driver took pity on me, told me to get in, and drove me to the race course. (It is, therefore, not within walking distance of the train station.) I say she "took pity on me" because she told me as we drove off that I had been standing in some sort of "no cab pickup" zone, which explained why so many cabs had passed me by despite my arms flailing with increasing desperation, surely a comic figure to anyone who happened to see my crazed pantomine. In any event, I was eternally grateful that this merciful soul violated protocol by giving me a ride.

She charged me six euros for the ride. I gave her a four euro tip.

Before she left me off at the race course, she pointed to a residential corner close by and told me that I could return to the Saint Cloud train station via a local bus that stopped there. My travel journal, which I'm consulting now, says it was a #459 bus back to the station. So if you go to the Saint Cloud train station, you might want to ask about the #459 (or possibly it's the #458 going out). My journal says I caught the 4:38 pm bus back, just missing the 4:07 pm.

By the way, I stayed at the race course (or hippodrome) for five races. I ate lunch there, a "very passable," I recorded, curry chicken breast with rice pilaf and a half bottle of Sancerre. The feature of the day was the Group 2 Prix Greffulhe. My pick, Sagara, lost by a nose. He ran in the Arc five months later and finished a "very passable" third in the accustomed large Arc field.

I hope your visit is as ultimately rewarding as mine was (I got one miracle close-up photo of a horse galloping out to warm up for a race despite my usual bungling with the camera), and stress-free.

We expect a full report on your day at the races and elsewhere in Paris.

Bonne chance. (I knew high school French would pay off someday.)

Hi wanderful:
I appreciate your St. Cloud experience. It doesn't look as easy to get to as some of the other tracks we've been to; Chantilly, Longchamps, and Maisons-Lafitte. If the weather is halfway decent we will attempt it as I love going to the races. Now that my local track Suffolk Downs is closed, I only seem to go to races on our trips to Europe.

If I get any good photos at the track I will be sure to post them. It can't possibly be better than my ultimate race experience at the Arc when I won with Treve.

From the Le Val d'Or train station I mentioned it is a 1.2km walk (or just under 20 minutes) to the entrance of the hippodrome, per mappy.com.

Hello opaldog,

I also plan to attend the races for the first time at Saint Cloud soon. Have you traveled yet or in the future? I just spoke with a representative (very broken English/French conversation), but he recommended the L train to Le Val d'or. On a map, this looks like a 20 minute walk or maybe a taxi ride from the station to the racecourse. Let me know if you've visited the course or found any more info!

uk2k, FrenchMystique told you it was about a 20 minute easy walk from the train station just above. It's only 1.2 km, that's only about .75 miles.

Thanks for the reply uk2k. We just returned from Paris and sadly the one day that St. Cloud was running it was a miserable rainy and cold day so we didn't get there. It just gives me an excuse to get back to Paris. Good luck getting out there. I gave in to the weather but Paris was great as always.

I've been back for awhile now and as with most trips you don't do most of the things you put on your list. The day we planned to go to the races it rained all day so scratch that for another time. The highlight of this trip was our Sunday afternoon/evening spent at La Chope des Puces out at Clingancourt. We've been a few times before but this time we had so much fun.

We go to listen to Ninine Garcia, a great and well known guitarist of gypsy jazz and modern jazz as well. This time we stood as usual at the bar near the front to see and hear the music. My husband surprised me and asked if Ninine would allow us to take his picture with us. He was very nice and accomodated us. And then the fun began, the music was great the people standing around were friendly and after a few beers adopted us and started buying us beers and in broken english and our broken french we established that they were gypsies with the real gypsy heart and that "fun and friends were everything in life". At that point we wholeheartedly agreed and began with the group selfies that one can only take after several beers. With friendly au revoirs all around we left the bar and managed to make it back to the metro and safely back to our apartment in the marais with a great memory of Paris. I don't know if I can top this one.