ENGLISH TEXTS
are an old cemetery , with some of the gravestones now covered in moss . Beneath this living surface , one learns of the hazardous fate of villagers from centuries past . Towards the church , on the other side of a narrow lane bordered by a low wall , next to the cemetery , is a traditional pub , The Plough , which was the haunt of great trainers in the past , and which resonated on race nights with the bawdy songs shouted by locals and racing tourists . A little further down , a bull in a field , then the old watermill further down still . On the other side of the cemetery , just beyond the cypress trees that border it , a passage leads to the winding road that runs through the village . On the corner of this passage and the street is the King ’ s Arms , a magnificent pub that has become a soulless franchise . The legendary jockey Fred Archer ( 1857-1886 ) is said to have lived there for a few years as a child , when his mother ran the pub . The heart of Prestbury village is worth a visit in itself . But the festival is indeed that of Cheltenham . The town ’ s railway station * is called Cheltenham Spa , as its reputation stems in particular from the discovery of mineral waters in the 18 th and 19 th centuries . A chic spa district developed in the area , christened by its promoters Montpellier , a town then renowned in Great Britain for its health benefits , “ sunshine and healthy air ”.
The Languedoc capital had probably not yet been exposed to the fumes of the Industrial Revolution !
Prices are soaring During the March Festival , the population of Cheltenham triples and this has nothing to do with the mineral waters of this town of about 115,000 inhabitants , roughly the population of Rouen or Orléans . So it increases to over 300,000 for a week . A challenge for the municipality , and a boon for local businesses ! The price of rooms in the region , and up to tens of kilometres away , soars . It ’ s Christmas in March for this pretty Regency-style town ( early 19 th century ). A 2023 study estimated the economic impact of the Cheltenham Festival on the town at £ 274 million , or € 316 million . Seven years earlier , a first estimate put the figure at £ 100 million ... This extreme popularity makes access to the racecourse a headache because , although it is close to the town , it is surrounded by a rather rural environment and narrow roads . In a way , it ’ s a gigantic roundabout around a racecourse and woe betide anyone who misses their entrance gate : they ’ re in for a loop ! On the other hand , driving up Cleeve Hill in the evening , where you can enjoy a panoramic view of the whole site and the town of Cheltenham , before gliding down the other side towards the magnificent Cotswolds villages such as Winch- combe , Broadway or Stowon-the-Wold , is an unforgettable experience , especially after spending a few hours in a crowd as lively and compact as Cheltenham ’ s . So we ’ re talking about nearly 70,000 people a day for four days . An estimated 265,000 pints of Guinness are drunk at Cheltenham during the festival . That ’ s the equivalent of three Olympic swimming pools . If you added the many other alcohols , beers and wines ( sometimes mulled ) consumed during the meeting , you ’ d be talking more about lakes . In its current form , this festival is not that old . The Queen Mother Champion Chase ( Gr . 1 ), one of the five flagship races of the meeting , was created in 1959 . The Gold Cup , which is the equivalent of the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris , is the richest race of the season at the racecourse , with € 755,000 in prize money ( compared to € 900,000 for our “ Grand Steeple ”). It was originally a 4,000-meters flat race run on the slopes of Cleeve Hill . Created in its current form in 1924 to meet the need for a major weight-for-age race for steeplechasers , rather than a handicap like the Grand National , it has grown in reputation to become the most crucial race in the “ Classic ” jumps calendar . Golden Miller won five years in a row from 1932 to 1936 in the colours of the flamboyant Dorothy Paget . Then the great Irish trainer Vincent O ’ Brien saddled his Cottage
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