Club Arnage

I imagine most of us are.
What is the quirkiest tradition or idiosyncrasy that you or your group have regarding Le Mans.
For us, it doesn't matter where you're travelling from, we always meet at the bar/petrol station on the N138 near Gace, and always but always have cheese and ham pizza, chips with a small beer. From there, onto the campsite and the first drink is always a round of those nasty supermarket vanilla/apple/cranberry shots.
There on - whatever happens, happens.

What's your tradition?

The WANCs always stop in Sees on the way down on Wed morning and have Big Als ham cooked in coca cola in fresh french bed.
I always have a dump in the spotlessly clean public toilet there too.
PM

Beer on the ferry ;D whatever time of day. This year like last year before 9am

You going to be joining us this year then Rick? and before 9am?? last year it was before 7am!!

What about the Pain Chocolat then Powermite which is my tradition but delete the dump as it is no longer spotless ::) Oh and try to get in the cathedral, which so far has always been locked ???
Canada Phil

Lots of musical habits.

When we set off in blighty - track one is always AC/DC Thunder.  As we hit the outskirts of LM its always Van Halen - Jump.  As we go under the tunnel at Terte Rouge Van Halen - Pannama.

Always stop at Sutton Scotney services for final petrol fill up.

Jem

Dave in our crew always gets the runs as soon as we hit France. Even to the extent of following through on one occasion.

Canada Phil  suddenly gets the appetite of a moose as we get into France

Canada Phil IS The Moose when in France ;D

Cards... on the ferry. Black Jack and there's always the same old arguments about the rules. Not the Casino Black Jack, but the one where 2 is pick up two cards, Jack is pick up five cards etc.

Mike always keeps score and we keep a tally until back at pompy on the Monday where we convert points to pennys and settle up. And then we usually give all money won to Gaz for driving us in his motorhome all trip! It has been know to get as much as £15 from the biggest looser!!

None of us play the damn game the whole years round, but it's what we do whilst the beers flow, once we've settled in the bar. It's the LAW!

Chris always jumps in the Commer and says "She's a beauty!". Then it's thrash down to Pompey, woryying if we'll get there (always do) and onto the boat. First things first, test the plumbing in the heads, off to the bar for a few rounds of those lovely big bottles of Heineken, then a stroll on deck as we make steam to see how much further Blair has managed to shrink the Royal Navy this year. >:(  

Also play a daft card game on the boat, like Russ's, it never gets played any other time of year. Nice lunch in the self service, a quick nap and then it's who can spot France first? Drive to LM and it all comes flooding back. Get to camp site and set up gear and try to get a reasonably sober and early first night. That pretty much is the last thing I can ever remember, next thing I know is it's tuesday I'm somehow back at home feeling violently ill and vowing never to go again.

I joined Liverpool boys on MB on wednesday afternoon with a fresh bottle of champagne and we have a drink to this coming wonderful weekend.

Night before leaving, bed at 12pm, wake up at 3.30am leave at 4.00am in blind panick 'The ferry leaves two minutes ago!' gun it down to ferry, more petrol in gas guzzling camper, wait in hour long que, get on ferry, grumble alot, finaley wake up, eat food we'll be tasting for the rest of the week, stumble down to camper, Get to camp, pitch up, beer, beer,beer,beer,beer...bezr,beew,berre,be.esfv err

Weds night all rendezvous in Harpenden. Few beers then major curry. Up in boarding house next morning and set off to Folkestone for the 9.30 shuttle. We never make it!
All the way down take turns in driving, reading the Motorsport supplement and trying to look knowledgeable by discussing the entry list.
Stop in Sees for croque monsiuer and visit to supermarket for that nights food & beer. Final blast to LM. I NEVER relax fully until we're onto Maison Blanche and the tents are up.
Weekend follows the usual format - need I elaborate?
Sunday night in hotel in Calais.
Monday shuttle for a depressing drive up to NorthLincs planning next years trip.

Only our second time going but the habit so far seems to be leaving everything until the last minute so we struggle to get a decent site and then f*cking up the ferry booking so it costs about twice as much as it should.

Oh well, at least we will be there. Eventually.

What I always remember is that we get there, the vehicles form a circle, and we jump out, and have the first cold one[/b].  We've had a few on the boat and a couple in the supermarket car park, but suddenly you realise you're there, and its all going to happen.

We always meet up at the same petrol station on the A12 at some God foresaken hour and head south.

Then, as some of us have second hand bladders, we always have a waz at the M20 Maidstone services, the ferry, fuel services just past Calais and same again at the south of Rouen at the top of the N138.

When on the ferry, we leg it to the restaurant to be the first in the queue for the full English, followed by a pint of bitter or Guiness - one of us generally remarks that this will be the last decent meal and drink for 5 days!

We also have a break in Gace for a Crock Monsieur and a cold one (and another waz).

On arrival in HA, our lead vehicle drives up and down the same spot to flatten the grass a bit - followed by the rest of us (one of which has normally overheated on the Le Mans ring road).

sadly i dont have any habits because it seems that every year i go its from a different location - newbury via dover, canterbury via dover, amsterdam via paris, and then this year newbury via portsmouth (i think?)

Clearly Tink, your habit is that you go from different locations every year!!  ;D

So what about 'Rules of Thumb' or 'Unwritten Rules'...

We have: "Nobody uses the campervan loo" 'cos nobody wants to empty it!

Never spoken and never broken!

Unwritten rule -

As I do all the ACO booking, ferry booking, co-ordinating with all the people in our group, collecting all the money, paying all the money, sorting out the route, shepherding and mothering all the cars / drivers etc ........... when we arrive at LM, I'm off duty

............ so no one ever says "Steve, it's your turn for the washing up" or similar chore.  I just get passed bottles of cold beer and plates of food.

Thanks chaps.

thats a good point. maybe i should make it my mission to travel from a different location and by as many different forms of transport as possiible - i've got small motorhome, car, train and (extremely) large motorhome covered.  now i need to go by plane, helicopter, smuggled inside the back of a lorry....

That's exactly how I do it. Years of practice and the planning gets easier each time. I don't let the troops know that and they treat me like royalty all week. Perfect. ;D ;D ;D

On a couple of occaisions I've seen the things overflow.  Its great entertainment to watch someone bailing out the locker with a teacup/spoon etc.

on the point of toilets, if you've ever been in Terte Rouge the locals organise great toilets and showers on site, free! just make a donation, then you can order breakfast off them and they sell drinks ect. only time i washed all week! thanks guys (and gals)

That's usually the reason I visit the stinking hell holes...




And on the topic of overflowing toilets, the story has been told many times of when the Maison Blanche toilets came to us...the crap lorry had missed a round and a wide area was soon engulfed in "waste water" and Richards, which forced their way out through the concrete manhole cover. It nearly reached my caravan, and DID reach my two mates (rather flash) bikes, and they had to go barefoot paddled to retrieve them. Sh*t happens I suppose... :-)

Do you have the drivers number now for emergencies!

LM   what a bad habit         i cant give up....... :D

Ride Ferry then ride  to get there.
The Greeat reunions,   beer banter and BBQs, let the good times roll.
Mines a large Armagnac...      or a Beer!

 It nearly reached my caravan, and DID reach my two mates (rather flash) bikes, and they had to go barefoot paddled to retrieve them. Sh*t happens I suppose... :-)

Was one the funniest situations that I have seen in my LeMans visits, hopefully no encores this year Smokie.

LeMansZone.de team habits/rules:

• only soft drinks (beer, wine), no hard stuff like whiskey....
• first cold one after we have crossed through Paris (at the latest...)
• watch the start of the race at the Dunlop bridge
• newbies to the team have to do the dishes and carry the beer to the track
• no women or kids on the team