[LM24] Different Things to do at Le Mans 2013.....or 2014....!

[GTfour]

Originally Posted by GTfour

I have to say, I'm allways short on time during our long weekend at Le Mans.
Arriving on the Wednesday afternoon, we put up camp, lite the BBQ and relax a little from our just completed 700km journey, accompanied by the noise of the cars in the background (they allways have to tie me to a pole, with a 30 feet rope, in the middle of our camp to prefent me from running of to the track before the build up of our camp is finished )

I use to take the newbee's in our group to the grandstand area of the track just about 15min. before the qually session starts, so they'll see a quiet track first. This ofcourse to enhance the drama of their first encounter with the cars.
We then enjoy the cars from a grandstand for about half an hour and then head on to other parts of the track with in walking distance, enjoying a bite to eat and a drink on our way to and fro.
After this, it's back to our camp let the impressions sink in, chat with the newcomers(they mostly keep trickling up and untill the Friday), enjoy a nice wine and go to sleep late for the next day is leisure day.

Thursday begins with a nice englisch/french stile breakfast including fried eggs with ham and cheese accompanied by some fresh 'crossants aux chocolat et amande' from a nearby bakery.
We then head off to do the bulk of our grocery shopping at the Super U just passed Arnage village. This usually takes us at least two hours. On our way 'home' we mostly stop off at the aforementioned terraces along the main road of Arnage to have a beer and enjoy the passing cars.
Upon arriving back, it's organising the groceries and welcoming the next badge of newcomers, helping them set up.
Thursday we ofcourse follow both quallifying sessions from various points along the track.

Friday for me is Village shopping day and pitwalkday. Thanks to the great Bentley03 I've been one of the privileged souls to be able to visit various participating raceteams from up close and personal during the last few years. I'd love for this never to change, allthough deep in my heart I know this won't last forever...
Two years ago we tried the parade in the town of Le Mans, but I thought it to be way to crowded for a few glimpses of exotic cars and the drivers.
A visit to this old village were the teams would stay in the old days, is on my list, sounds very interesting and relatively quiet.
The Friday night is also the only night I go to bed sort of early(a strict 'not later than 02:00am policy) which is allways kind of hard for every night at Le Mans is one of chatting with great friends and true petrolheads about Le Mans and enjoying the fine cars people bring to the weekend.

Then, early in the Saturday morning I usually get woken up ever so slighty by the morning practice, to then nod off for a few more hours to meet up with the finest sportscar bunch one can imagine at the 10tenths meet.
Every time it seems to be way too short and one also has to figure out a way to see as much as possible from whatever is on the pre race menu.

[Mal]

Originally Posted by GT6

We like la chartre sur la loire, a real mecca for sportscar fans as it is where the old teams (Bentley/aston etc) would stay, lovely place with a square and the hotel de france with all the pictures and memerobilia of the time.
Also a good climb to the joan of arc memorial at the top a a huge mound with great views of the surrounding area. Plenty of old cars there on both thursday and friday lunchtime

Our group our thinking of a trip out here this year and also want to take in a vineyard visit. Does anyone know of one nearby that they would recommend

[Elaviel]

Originally Posted by Mal

Our group our thinking of a trip out here this year and also want to take in a vineyard visit. Does anyone know of one nearby that they would recommend

I wouldn't ask him, his idea of wine comes in a plastic barrel from the carrefour!

[Mal]

Originally Posted by Elaviel

I wouldn't ask him, his idea of wine comes in a plastic barrel from the carrefour!

Oh dear! I hope he only uses that for cooking

[Aysedasi]

.....or bathing......

[GT6]

When in france do what the normal locals do, the supermarkets have a huge variety of wine containers and glass bottles are fast being consigned to the past or to sell to wine snobs, the vast majority of wine drunk by the french is no longer vineyard bottled. If the locals like it in plastic/boxes then that is ok by me. Also it is cheap and plentiful just what I want. If i was sitting down to a good meal then may be i would go for something a little better but cheap wine in bottles is still cheap wine and at le mans my consumption of red wine means that I could not guarantee appreciating a £15 bottle but a 7 euro foive litre barrel goes down a treat

[Aysedasi]

No wonder you can't appreciate the subtle nuances of merguez Simon, your taste buds are quite anaesthetised by all that cheap plonk.....

[GT6]

Yep I arrive on the Wednesday and start drinking the stuff, that is why I take Helen along someone has to drive the car to the supermarket those barrels are to heavy to carry far. However despite sometimes having a little to much of the stuff i have never been unwell in all the years I have been going and in the morning I am usually the first up and cooking the full monty while others complain about feeling rough

[Aysedasi]

Well, you're clearly doing OK on it, so you should certainly carry on. That's a barrel a day, is it?

[GT6]

When it was hot a few years ago any unfinish barrels looked like footballs by the morning as they got hot, but if sealed and in the shade they last a few days

[Elaviel]

pretty much! though the night befores left overs make a perfect container and sauce for the next nights dinner! Red wine soaked in beef mmmm.

He did once tell me to brush my teeth with the little bottles of beer which i politely refused.

[vincegail]

I prefer my beef soaked in wine, instead of wine soaked in beef

[Muppetdave901]

Originally Posted by GT6

I would agree La Lude is well worth a visit and not far from there is la Fleche a beautiful river town and a great Zoo perfect on a warm sunny afternoon

Yeah La Lude is very nice - although we renamed the Chateau as allude - twice we tried to visit it last year, and twice it was closed! The gardens are nice for a wander if the weather's nice though.

La Fleche is another lovely town - we quite often go to eat there in the evenings - the tabac in the square (with all the film star photos) for cheap and cheerful steak frites, or the brasserie in the same row for something nicer. An English family had just taken it over last June, so hopefully they're still there and doing well. Very random, but the wife is a doctor in the local hospital, but worth knowing should anything awful ever happen whilst over there.

Not been to the zoo yet, perhaps this year but have heard it's good.

[Elaviel]

Originally Posted by Muppetdave901

Not been to the zoo yet, perhaps this year but have heard it's good.

Definately worth a visit! i had a lovely conversation trying to tell a woman there was a kitten in the elephant enclosure! think we ended up with pointing a a rubber tiger and saying maison tiger dans pointing to an elephant enclosure. we got there in the end and the little kitten was rescued!

[Muppetdave901]

Maison Tigre - excellent!

Some more vague suggestions for those who are interested.... I'm just reading '1000 years of annoying the French', and if you weren't aware, the area surrounding Le Mans is shrouded in France vs. England history; Richard the Lionheart and his parents are buried in one town, Joan of Arc (mentioned) traipsed around the area and all sorts of that kind of history to explore.... (if that's your bag!)

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by Muppetdave901

Maison Tigre - excellent!

Some more vague suggestions for those who are interested.... I'm just reading '1000 years of annoying the French', and if you weren't aware, the area surrounding Le Mans is shrouded in France vs. England history; Richard the Lionheart and his parents are buried in one town, Joan of Arc (mentioned) traipsed around the area and all sorts of that kind of history to explore.... (if that's your bag!)

The problem with having properly middle-class parents is that when all your mates at school were going to Disneyland Paris, CentreParcs and Butlins, I was being dragged around all these sights of the Loire Valley....and even worse, I developed an interest in that sort of thing myself.

Read the stuff about the war - Le Mans was right in the thick of it. The old grandstands were used by the Americans and the Brits during the way and the trees just before Mulsanne corner are much younger than others because they were chopped down by the Nazis to make way for a prison camp.

If anyone is coming in via San Malo, please stop in the town and have a look - it was a lovely old Bretagne seaside town absolutely flattened in the war, and rebuilt brick-for-brick in the late 1940s.

When Le Mans kicked off again in 1948, a lot of British and American ex-servicemen returned to celebrate seeing the area recovering again. That's helped contribute to the post-war international feel of the event and it's part of the reason why Americans have kept coming back ever since....and why the Brits and Americans are so welcomed by the French.

My dad often used to tell me as a kid about Jag's victory in '88, and how popular it was with the locals...

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

My dad often used to tell me as a kid about Jag's victory in '88, and how popular it was with the locals...

Hmm, with that in mind, I wonder what they think about the Audi domination

[vincegail]

The combined knowledge on this site on all different matters never ceases to amaze me. Thx Ginger for this little history gem!

[isynge]

Related to Ginger's post there's a lovely bit in Patrick Bishop's "Fighter Boys" (largely about Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain) where he relates a tale of a British fighter squadron during the collapse of 1940 flying out of Le Mans and the pilots earnestly exploring the track. Always raises a smile when I think about that bit. If anyone's interested I'll dig my copy out and get a page reference.

[Aysedasi]

Yes please Ian.....

[isynge]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Yes please Ian.....

As requested it's pp.177-178, 17 Squadron (Hurricanes I believe) were there 12-17 June (so well after Dunkirk and to all intents and purposes the fall of France), discovered the NAAFI and Army had gone, leaving "huge quantities of cigarettes and whisky [and] ... a batch of Harley Davidson motorbikes. Pilots and ground staff took the opportunity to ride circuits around the famous track" - no lap times are recorded, but I like to think a gap like that just serves to act as an incentive to a historian reading something like this...

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by isynge

As requested it's pp.177-178, 17 Squadron (Hurricanes I believe) were there 12-17 June (so well after Dunkirk and to all intents and purposes the fall of France), discovered the NAAFI and Army had gone, leaving "huge quantities of cigarettes and whisky [and] ... a batch of Harley Davidson motorbikes. Pilots and ground staff took the opportunity to ride circuits around the famous track" - no lap times are recorded, but I like to think a gap like that just serves to act as an incentive to a historian reading something like this...

That's absolutely brilliant, thanks for sharing that!

[GT6]

I do hope the RAF guys did not drink the whiskey first you know how hot the french police area on drink driving/riding

[Muppetdave901]

Thanks for that Ginger, I must admit that WWII is more my area of interest, so I shall enjoy reading up on that era. The wife loves anything medieval so she's in her element in that region - that's why we're going for 10 days

Maybe the littlun' won't turn out so mis-adjusted.... (he can't be too bad - 18 months old in June and on LM #2!)

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by Muppetdave901

Thanks for that Ginger, I must admit that WWII is more my area of interest, so I shall enjoy reading up on that era. The wife loves anything medieval so she's in her element in that region - that's why we're going for 10 days

Maybe the littlun' won't turn out so mis-adjusted.... (he can't be too bad - 18 months old in June and on LM #2!)

Well that's a good effort! I was taken to scrutineering at 2, qualifying at 4 years old, and my first full Le Mans at 5. I'm 18 and I've racked up 13 visits now. I think the best gift my dad has given me has been all those trips to La Sarthe and a love of Le Mans - even when I was young, difficult and not interested in much racing, he kept taking me so long as I wanted to go. I know in 1999, despite a classic race unfolding, he saw less than a quarter of the race because of little Ginger

Keep it going!