Club Arnage

                                 Having received and paid the Liverpool boys ticket invoice today , for 6 GA, 6 Grandstand

                                 seats and 10 Blue Nord Campng passes. It set me thinking, surely Blue Nord  did not have

                                 so much spare capacity as to absorb all the MB refugees, so are we going to have Blue Nord

                                 regulars being bumped to another site?

I have already asked this question (somewhere).   :-\

F
(BN regular)

I suspect this will be the case.

In that way, although not fair to BN regulars, I think they have actually tried their best for Club Arnage. It's quite possible they didn't know about the MB works and so the fact that loads of you put applications in together implied that you wanted to be together.

Now with zones A & B gone they have at least moved you all to Blue Nord and presumably in the same area of numbered pitches. They could easily have left Bleu alone and dumped you all on BSJ or spread all over the place.

Given that MB is a more expensive site than Bleu I believe they are trying to look after the higher paying campers at the expense of normal Bleu people which is probably the best way they could deal with the situation.

Except you have MB people in a place they dont want to be and BN people in a place they dont want to be.  Thats upsetting twice as many people!

F

P.S.  also "CA Members" are not the only people affected - and also CA probably dont represent a very big percentage anyway.

                                 No info on invoice about numbered pitches , I understand

                                the size is to be set at 7x5m. but has anybody heard that

                                they are actually going to number the pitches

                               

Definitely numbered, it's on the ACO campsite map.

Fran, although MB people don't want to be anywhere else, Bleu is the closest to MB. I'm sure they'll squeeze you and your bike on!

Where do I look for the Camping map?

Not sure I will have my bike, I am trying to persuade my boss to lend me his Boxter for the week!!  ;D

F

PDF of camping attached. All sites with No. on indicate numbered pitches.

While looking for it, I came across this, some fantastic stats,just look at how much people spend.
http://www.lemans.org/marketing/live/ressources/pdf/24h2008/034_profil_spect_gb.pdf

That's probably the main reason for numbering pitches.

When the 81% French people turn up they want to be able to drive onto a nice reserved pitch instead of being stuffed down the back as us proper race goers have got there early and nabbed all the pitches.

And only 21% of all attendees are camping at the circuit, but the vast majority of the foreigners are more then 3 days around!

I haven't cancelled my ACO order for 15 tickets, so will be able to help you out if needed ;)

I wonder how they'll do numbered pitches in Expo.  After all the cattle sheds etc are in the way!

Ex[po camping doesn't show the "No." symbol, only Expo Parking

Ahh I see what you mean!  Now can anyone point me in the direction of Specsavers because I obviously need to go there!
 

How many years has BN been an official campsite?
I was there in 2006 , but on bleu sud in 2004 , I think it may have just been Bleu then but can't remember!

I have been Bleu Nord in 2007 and 2006.  Before that I was in Sud for 4 years, but as you say it was just called Bleu. 

The other side of the road was just used mostly for car parking with a few people camping there. 

I can clearly remember being invited over there for dinner after night qualifying with some people from the MR2 Drivers club who were camping in the car park in probably some time around  - errmmm - 1998/99'ish when I was in Houx Annex.  Although it was designated a car park there were quite a lot of people camped beside their cars.    (I can somewhat less clearly remember going back to HA later!!)

F

(P.S.  Incidentally - the very first time I came to LM I was in Bleu Sud before defecting to HA for a few years - so it really is my spiritual home at LM).

And there was me thinking that you had never strayed from the hallowed ground of Bleu!  ;)

I think Blue Nord has been an official campsite for 2 maybe 3 years, we did the unoficial camping bit for the first 2 years (2001, 2002) very basic no showers, few bogs.

Ohh no, I started in Bleu Sud, did a few years in Houx Annex, one year in Expo, back to Bleu Sud and last 2 years in Bleu Nord.   

I have been perfectly happy in each of them, apart from too many Morgan drivers in Expo braying and hooray henrying all night!   (Not to mention the fumes from the Turtle Wax being applied every hour or so).   

(To be fair I wasnt well that year and apart from one hilarious night boozing with Dark Warrior and his buddies in the pub, it was a miserable few days all round).   :'(

F

Was it the Tartiflete, Fran?  :o

Good lord - I have never been foolish enough to eat that!   :D

I can't quite believe those stats. They reckon that last year had over 250,000 visitors and if the UK is 14%, that's only 35,000. I've seen all sorts of estimates about how many Brits are over there, but it's a good bit more than 35k.

Anyway, even if the stats are right there are less than 50,000 foreign visitors attending; if nearly 16,000 foreign visitors spend (on average, say) €400, and nearly 10,000 spend over €500, that's ~€12m. 93,500 of the French visitors spend only (on average) €75 each, which is only €7m.

Why do they bleedin well insist on broadcasting the race commentary in French, then? :)