[LM24] Reims, circuit and champagne

[vincegail]

Anyone here been to Reims before? I might change my itinerary a bit and leave Antwerp friday morning before the testday and head over to Reims first. I'd like to visit the old circuit and may have few flutes de champagne aussi Is the old circuit easy to reach and to find? I know there's not much left. After that I'd like to visit a champagne chateau. Then a b+b, so I can arrive in La Sarthe early saturday. Any tips?

[Gingers4Justice]

I've been before. The circuit was very easy to find from memory - we searched for it but there came a point where you didn't need the satnav anymore and we just headed for the big grandstandy thing with 1950s adverts on it.

Reims itself is nice if a little unspectacular. But in terms of how much champagne is knocking about, it's just as you imagine it, and then some. Ask for a glass of tap water there and you'll get a glass of bubbly.

I think a housing estate has been built since I went but I remember looking at all the land around it and thought that if someone had enough money and ambition, you could easily convert the old circuit if you bought enough land to add chicanes and run-offs.

Sounds like a great plan though Vince. I'd recommend it to any of the Brits doing Dover-Calais/Dunkirk as a nice way of breaking up the trip if you've got time.

[ss_collins]

Yeah I have. Well worth it, not quite as spooky as it once was since the restoration has got underway but still great place. Bubbly should be in a tulip glass not a flute BTW.

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

........ I'd recommend it to any of the Brits doing Dover-Calais/Dunkirk as a nice way of breaking up the trip if you've got time.

hardly on the way though, is it. Paris rather gets in the way on the second leg!

[PascaLM]

Reims is a city I know very well. I have lived 9 + 4 years there.
First, and I am sorry for this, you cannot do an entire lap of the circuit de Reims-Gueux anymore. The track used before 1953 is still available I think. They cut a part that led to the Muizon turn and the straight (here). But you can stop and see the old grandstands and pits which have been refreshed several years ago with the original sponsors of the sixties.

In Reims visit : the Cathedral, The palais du Tau (with the last French king's jewels and crown if you like history).
For Champagne : Pommery caves, Ruinart (the top of champagne), Veuve-Cliquot, Mumm, Lanson...

But, above all, you can also visit the Reims railway station, a important place of pilgrimage, where I started my first trip to Le Mans in 1984.

[Aysedasi]

Always wanted to go to Reims - still haven't made it. Same goes for getting a gander at the old 'real' Spa......

[vincegail]

Originally Posted by PascaLM

Some really useful stuff

Thank you Pascal!

[vincegail]

Originally Posted by ss_collins

Bubbly should be in a tulip glass not a flute BTW.

The oldest champagne house in Reims dares to differ with you.
Quote: "Visiting the crayères is an exceptional experience, that includes both the tour and a guided tasting of a FLUTE of the cuvée of your choice"

Found on http://www.ruinart.com/uk/la-maison-...eptions/visits

[PascaLM]

Originally Posted by vincegail

The oldest champagne house in Reims dares to differ with you.
Quote: "Visiting the crayères is an exceptional experience, that includes both the tour and a guided tasting of a FLUTE of the cuvée of your choice"

Found on http://www.ruinart.com/uk/la-maison-...eptions/visits

You can drink champagne in a tulip glass or a flute. The flute keeps the carbonic gas and the bubbles that you can observe reaching the top one by one. We always drink champagne in flûtes ; large glasses are obsolete.

The circuit of Reims was the first place where I attend a car show in 1981. It was a Ferrari meeting. I remember the 375, Dino and Daytonas. This day Albert Uderzo (Asterix's father) brought his own 512 BB Le Mans 1978.

[andrewc]

If you're passing nearby Reims, it is well worth stopping off to look at the remains of the circuit. I stopped off on a trip to the South of France last year, and was well worth doing.

My wife who was with me didn't know what to expect and she enjoyed it to.

[nobster]

Vince, I visited the track a few years ago, pics from my visit are on my facebook, link should work hopefully....

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...4900918&type=3

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

hardly on the way though, is it. Paris rather gets in the way on the second leg!

Depends which way you go. We tend to avoid Paris like the plague.

[PascaLM]

Race control and pits
(The Nissan is not mine ! )

[Bicknell55]

In case you haven't found it on the map:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Re...e41a91deb79d7f

I'm planning on stopping by on my way back to Paris on Monday after the race. Yeah, it's out of the way by a lot but it isn't like Reims is just around the corner from me. I'm also planning on getting to a few WWI monuments/memorials.

[isynge]

Originally Posted by Bicknell55

In case you haven't found it on the map:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Re...e41a91deb79d7f

I'm planning on stopping by on my way back to Paris on Monday after the race. Yeah, it's out of the way by a lot but it isn't like Reims is just around the corner from me. I'm also planning on getting to a few WWI monuments/memorials.

Sounds like a plan...

Once you make it to Reims you're really not far from the Argonne Forest which has lots of AEF resonance, and of course Verdun is pretty easy to get to from there too. If you like your battlefields there's quite a bit to be found around Sedan too - for both 1870 and 1940.

Enjoy.

[Bicknell55]

Originally Posted by isynge

Sounds like a plan...

Once you make it to Reims you're really not far from the Argonne Forest which has lots of AEF resonance, and of course Verdun is pretty easy to get to from there too. If you like your battlefields there's quite a bit to be found around Sedan too - for both 1870 and 1940.

Enjoy.

It's pretty ambitious, we'll see what happens. Unfortunately the availability of vacation days results in a stacked itinerary.

[isynge]

Originally Posted by Bicknell55

It's pretty ambitious, we'll see what happens. Unfortunately the availability of vacation days results in a stacked itinerary.

Fingers crossed it comes together for you. DM me if you want some pointers about that part of the world - it's a bit lesser known, but incredibly rewarding as a destination.

[LDM]

I have wanted to visit what remains of the track for years and still have not managed it. For some reason whenever we are in France, Reims is a little too far off route.

I will just have to rely on my wife's taste for champagne to be the excuse!

[AstonGeoff]

We met some German friends in Reims back in March as it's roughly half way between us. As they hadn't been to the old circuit before we pottered out on the Saturday for a look.

It's been a few years since I last went and they have done some restoration work since then, but not a lot!

If you follow the old track into Gueux there is a fab little bistro opposite the ponds just before a roundabout. It's called Bistro de Circuit (obviously) and has the usual plethora of pictures on the walls. It's simple local French fare but good none the less. Plenty of locals in there too which is always a good sign.

[vincegail]

Duely noted! Thx Geoff!

[owrforever]

Attended the 1966 French Grand Prix. Jack Brabham won in his Brabham-Repco V-8 (first time a driver won in a car of his own manufacture). This is the event where Jack strolled through the starting field with a long black beard and cane; the press had been implying he was past his prime! The circuit was nothing more than a kinked triangle, very fast. I remember sitting is the grandstand at the exit to the Thillois Hairpin and as the field passed by the crowd shouted "Le Moustache!" as Graham Hill's Lotus went by. This occurred on every lap. The French really loved him. In practice Jim Clark struck a pheasant at full speed on the back straight, the poor bird emerging from one of the corn fields that lined the track; Clark took the blow directly in the goggles and injured his eye, unable to continue Pedro Rodriguez filled in. I think the Thillois Hairpin is now a traffic circle. The footprint of the old grandstand is still visible.

[LDM]

Well we are intending to take a trip to the Loire at the end of August and have decided to take a detour from the obvious route so that we can visit the Reims circuit and take some pictures etc - will be well chuffed at being able to finally get there (assuming all goes to plan!

[Tim the Grey]

I stopped off after LM 2 or 3 years back. WELL worth it.
It was dusk as we arrived, and the atmosphere was all you could wish for.

[Aysedasi]

It's on my bucket list........

[Tim the Grey]

JFDI, man. You've been HOW many times now?