Club Arnage

Dear Unofficial Le Mans Tourist Board,

Been trying to get some info for a friend coming over from Miami for the 2004 race and they have asked if the Hotel Concorde on the Avenue du Général Leclerc is OK? Certainly looks it from the web info I have found but any experience/knowledge would be much appreciated!

Cheers!

Rick

The Concorde hotel maybe one of the best hotels inner city... it's not a Vegas palace but we're not in the USA, we're in France, the Pays du Bon Gout !!!!

Your friend needs to book very early if he wants a room. The restaurant is quite good too and the bar is nice. This is an hotel where often teams and journalists stay, not only for the 24h but also for smaller racing events on the track.

SPECIAL TIP: book directly and not by the ACO Hotel Booking service, you can save maybe 30 to 40% !!!

Thanks Gilles!! You are a star! (as if that was ever in doubt!!)

Cheers

Rick

Rick,
I can add a further testamonial on the hotels behalf. They threw me out.
H

Hi Big H!

I take it that is a good thing then? No riff-raff and all that!!

Cheers

Rick

 I've been barred from better bars than this bar  ;D

 I don't get to use that one as much as I used to.
Canada Phil

Th quotation of the Bar was linked with the fact that it's a bar at your room door step. BTW sleeping at the Concorde, you're really near of the real best ones and at a walking distance of hostess bar too.

Apparently my friend has now been told that they are fully pre-booked for the 2004 event anyway (they only want to stay for 3 nights and most places are asking for 7 minimumn!!!!!).

Group of 4 but want something nice/special - never done the hotel thing so I'm not best placed to advise them.

Cheers for all the help!!

Rick

Virtually all hotels will ask for 7 nights minimum.

)
If you can actually get a booking.

We do the hotel thing every year (except sometimes the Saturday night - nothing against those that camp - just a different experience :) The hotel we use takes bookings for the next year when we check out and we have to confirm in January (bit like the ACO I suppose but MUCH less hassle).

Even then there is a sort of unofficial pecking order a bit like dead man's shoes. You have to have been going for a few years to qualify to be able to book. To be able to get in for the first couple of years requires luck with cancellations etc. etc.

I guess the hotel we use isn't the only one where this sort of regime applies.

Good luck in booking for 2004!!

For 4 people if they look for something special, they may book a gite or a guest house. Ok you don't have a bar at your doorstep, but you don't have the same landscape either and the touristic aspect is a good way to convince the female part...

They are now trying everything, thanks guys!

I guess one of these years I'll do the hotel thing too, still looking at a house for me too at the moment Gilles if you do hear of anything. Due to other major plans to celebrate my 40th year throughout the summer(such as riding the Etape du Tour in July, the Classic 24 Hours and making the Spa 24 Hours again) it might be a shorter experience for me next year  :o due to beer vouchers from Mrs. Rickmeister and the little Rickmeisters not extending to the full week - oh well back to the usual from 2005 then!

Thanks again!

Cheers

Rick

Gilles,
This is a part of LM that I've explored many times on a Sunday evening. However, I've never been able to recall any of the information gleaned from my 'walkabouts'. I suspect we fell into the hostess bar one year, but again it's mostly blank. Is it a very small bar with a couple of aggressively friendly barstaff?
From there it was a very short walk to another posh hotel, where I announced my arrival by falling over the plantpots outside and serenading the young receptionist with a couple of choruses of Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby, before settling down for a nap on the lawn.
It remains a mystery to me how I woke up in a hedge. Maybe I should get Tracker fitted.
H

Which kind of house ? maybe a gite at around 20/25 kms of the speedway is a good family stay and you can drive and stay at the circuit when you want, having your wife and kids sleeping in the gite and you at the shampoo bar...  ;)