This is the first post of my spring trip. I will give a brief update uptil until day. Leaving the house 5 pm on 21 May, I took an uber to the bus station at the Miami busway and SW 280 Street, then the bus to the South Dadeland Metrorail station. After arriving at the airport by metrorail, I caught my flight on Frenchbee to Orly in Paris. Arriving at Orly 2pm the next day, I took Orlybus 4 to Place Denfert Rochereau. From there is was a half mile walk to Gare Montparnasse. Taking the Lemans train I arrived in La Loupe at about 6:pm, where Emmanuelle picked me up. Being tired when I arrived at her house in Senonches, I ate, showered and went to bed. I had not slept on the plane The next day, the 23rd, we did not do much, but we did have a nice hike in the Domeniale Forest of Senonches. The 24th we went to the market at Senonches. This is a twice per week, open air, farmers market in the center of town. Many European cities have this sort of thing. Very enjoyable. Aftewards we went Coudreceau, to vist Yvette, Emmanuelles mother. She is always charming. On the 25th, we had a dinner with some of her friends in Coudreceau. We started with aperatifs of course, little snacks and champagne. This was followed by asparagus. The entree was a roast beef and potatoes with cream and cheese (gratin dauphinois). It went well with a nice Chateauneuf du Pape. Cheeses followed including, Camembert, fromage du chevre, Emmental, and Comte. Dessert was a cake called a tropezienne, a sweet brioche 10 inches across with a layer of sweet cream in the middle. That brings me up to today when we had our first real outing. A day at the races at the Hippodrome of Rambouillet.
The grounds outside the track very family oriented, with plenty of activities for children. There was a face painting studio, a bounce house, and childrens horsey tricycles. Additionally there were picnics everywhere. Hippodrome GPS: N 48 38.176, E 1 51.004
	The track itself had that same pastoral feel as the larger grounds, in strong contrast to Gulfstream Park in Miami. I only saw trotters today, both on horse and harness racing. Admission was $5.00 euros. Food and drinks were cheap. 2 Euro minimum bets. Overall it affords a nice, inexpensive outing in the countryside. Especially for a family if one brings a picnic basket.
I had one winning ticket today. But wait...There's more... At the end of each race one writes one's name on losing tickets and puts them in a box for a drawing at the end of the day.	Guess what I won!
	At the end of racing, we drove into town and walked to the Chateau and grounds of the Chateau de Rambouillet. It is a public park now and very beautiful. GPS: N 48 38.595, E 1 49.312
	Even though it was a Sunday, there were not many people there. Very lovely and relaxing. Tranquil one might say.
Rambouillet is a small town reminiscent of many small, quaintly picturesque, French towns. It is about 27 miles southwest of the center of Paris. It's main attraction is the chateau. Before it bacame a park, the chateau and grounds were used my many French leaders as a nearby, but isolated, getaway, similar the the usage of Camp David in the USA. Several international conferences have been held here, most recently it was the host of the Rambouillet Conference of February, 1999 after the Kosovo War.