In a delightful book of reflective essays, frequent TDN contributor Mark Cramer leads readers on 39 bicycling day trips through the environs of Paris, his adopted home. Inspired by Henry David Thoreau's daily walks in nature, Cramer pedals through forests, along rivers, and into French towns, each trek prompting fresh reflections on the environment, economic [...]

Most research shows that dropout rates at fitness clubs are significantly higher than retention rates, and dropout stats don't even include members who do not attend frequently enough to benefit. Doctors Ornstein and Sobel (Healthy Pleasures) explain why. The problem lies in the confusion of many fitness-crazed Americans between exercise and physical activity. “Exercise is [...]

For devoted horseplayers, the reopening on Apr. 8 of what is now called ParisLongchamp, after 917 days without racing, was less about the sleek architectural aesthetics and more about one particular radical change in track-surface landscape architecture: L'Open Stretch. This is the name for the new passing lane, a chance for horses blocked on the [...]

One of the main reasons I moved from the east of Paris to the northwest was to be within easy cycling distance of my favorite race track. Longchamp became my home track, within 10 smooth kilometers from our front door. I considered Longchamp the balcony we did not have in our apartment, with a view [...]

In Great Product. Lousy Product. Same Price? (TDN, June 15 2016), Bill Finley uses the same logic for pari-mutuel wagering as would apply to any item on the market. “If you give the customer a good product and price it fairly they will buy it.” He then makes several proposals that will seem radical at [...]

With Treve (Fr) (Motivator {GB}) going for an unprecedented third consecutive victory in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the Paris-Turf is asking readers if this is the most important event in the history of French racing. Imagine trying to bet this race. Would you back another horse and risk being ostracized from a [...]

A 2009 study of the Medical Journal of Australia found that being a jockey is more dangerous than being a boxer, with only the job of an offshore fisherman having more risk to lives. I suppose that being a race rider is probably safer in the USA, though 19% of the active riding members of [...]