HIPPODROME DE MAISONS-LAFITTE

The origins of the racing vocation of Maisons could come from the time of the acquisition of the castle in 1777 by the count of Artois, brother of Louis XVI and passionate about horses, who restored the stables of the monument to install thoroughbreds there, which ran on the meadows bordering the Seine where the future Charles X had arranged a training track. The equine trend of the municipality really asserted when the great banker, Jacques Laffitte, organised the first horse races at Maisons-sur-Seine in 1833. The grasslands along the Seine were then bought and arranged in a racetrack which, in 1878, became a real racecourse that enjoyed great fame from the early 20th century. Nowadays, although the horse activities are no more like it was, the Maisons-Laffite hippodrome remains one of the largest in France: its 92 hectares of land along the Seine raise it to the rank of the biggest racetrack of Paris Region. Its seats capacity is amazing: 20,000 seats including more than the quarter in the grandstand. The straight line of race exceeds 2 kilometres, which classifies it as the longest in Europe, with that of Newmarket. Free guided tours are offered every Sunday to take you behind the scenes.