How did you rate the new Longchamp

[Tiger roll]

Hello there

first of all I feel so lucky to have been there to witness a truely great Arc that will go down in history as one of the great racing memory’s for many.

 

i was a little disappointed in the facility’s at Longchamp namely the lack of toilets the lack of English speaking staff in the tote and many will agree that surely for just this one day each year the Arc  course commentary should surely be in English?

Ilthiufh it was a great day Yiu would have thought Considering Longchamp was closed for two years the facility’s would have been much better?

 

any comments from anyone else who went?

[Valiant Thor]

47 minutes ago, Tiger roll said:

i was a little disappointed in the facility’s at Longchamp namely the lack of toilets the lack of English speaking staff in the tote and many will agree that surely for just this one day each year the Arc  course commentary should surely be in English?

Why?

Would you expect us to speak French at the Tote at Royal Ascot and do the commentary in French.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Valiant Thor

[BillyHills]

Ascot was a disaster when they completed that too, i'm sure they will get it right for next year.

I thought Enable and Dettori sounded the same in any language

[Sir Puntalot]

35 minutes ago, Valiant Thor said:

Why?

Would you expect us to speak French at the Tote at Royal Ascot and do the commentary in French.

Don't be argumentative!  English is a far bigger language to be fair. Even when you go to South America where Spanish is No.1, there is English everywhere. It's more to do with the French are notoriously arrogant and we're shit at learning languages.  

to PL  @Tiger roll   

[Valiant Thor]

8 hours ago, Sir Puntalot said:

Don't be argumentative!  English is a far bigger language to be fair. Even when you go to South America where Spanish is No.1, there is English everywhere. It's more to do with the French are notoriously arrogant and we're shit at learning languages.  

to PL  @Tiger roll   

Not being argumentative ,just stating a fact.

They've not got over Joan of Arc or Waterloo yet so I hardly think they're going to speak the Queens English at a bit of a racecourse, surprised they've not started burning sheep over Brexit yet

[ray]

Hi

I`m a old time member but a long time away.

However in the last few years along with friends decided to attend various notable horse racing venues across the Uk.

We tend to be attracted by nice places locally where we can obtain accommodation and enjoy the hospitality.

Standard places we attend are the Cheltenham Festival and York Ebor Meeting but we`ve been to Newbury,Newmarket Goodwood Chester Wetherby(Charlie Hall) Sandown Ayr Etc.

Worst place visited Doncaster incidentally where the women`s tattoos are much better than the mens.

If wall to wall hen nights and stag nights are your thing Donny is for you.

In that vein we decided to try our 1st overseas trip and opted for The Arc.

We won`t be back and not because the commentary was in French!

We were in Les Jardins and paid 35 Euros for 2 days with Arc Day bought separately would have been 30 Euros.

Cheap for Premier Day at Racecourse but 3/4 years ago would have cost around 5 Euros.

However this was not the reason for discontent as the reason is simply facilities which you will recollect cost something like £130m renovation project.

DRINKS

At one point we stood in a Queue on Arc day for 1 hour and 5 minutes for a round of drinks and just about made the Arc.

Nothing to do with volume of people as there only about 30 people in our queue.

The bar facility consisted of a temporary table facility like you would get at a car boot sale with a table cloth on top.

There was only enough space for 1 barman to serve and then a gap where an iced bucket of champagne stood with wines to show their range and then a small space where 1 other barman stood with a till at each serving area.(2 separate Queues)

Behind the barman were various beer barrels and 1 guy pouring as the barman ordered.

It took between 2-3 minutes for each customer to be served.

I know this because an American in my queue started timing them as scared to miss the big race.

Behind us people leaving queue in droves and more must have left queue than actually served.

I`d say in total to cater for a huge area about 3/4 bar facilities all the same.

TOILETS

For this area there was a Gents with 6 Urinals and 1 Stall.

There were portaloos which were Unisex at another Area but that`s it.

Huge queues for a pee.

FOOD STATIONS

One decent area with seating.

Other than that on Saturday 1 Pizza Van which on Sunday was upped to 3 Vans.

Both days ran out of food.

In fact on Arc Day the bar ran out of plastic pint tumblers.

PARI MUTUAL

Broke down on Arc day and so people couldn`t get bets on for a while and also big queues

We were lucky with weather and Saturday in particular a lovely day.

There was plenty of outside seating and very enjoyable.

Sunday a bit wet in morning but we were there early and dried the seating which was fine although chilly.

The difficulty is that there are very little covered areas in this vicinity so if it rains which I imagine at this time of year on Arc day would be regular you will have a 90% chance of getting soaked plus it`s all grass so feet will be a tad wet.

I very much doubt next year these difficulties will be resolved as they need investment to overcome.

A complete shambles in terms of facilities but a wonderful racing experience.