Maison Blanche camping

[Big_M]

Having thought about it some more, I believe the ACO/French are on a mission to "repostition" the Le Mans event to attract more families and the corporate clients and we will see a few changes over the next few years.

Try looking at it from another perspective.  How would we feel if 500,000 foriegners (mainly French males) encamped in a field near our home town for a long weekend each year.  They then decend into the town on a Friday night and some of them drink themselves into oblivion, insult the bar staff, smash up tables and glasses and then burn rubber in the town square leaving behind a major clear up operation.

By imposing more rules and making it a more attractive event to families, they can reduce their policing bill and hopefully the cost of clearing up as familes are perceived as more caring about the environment.  The improved facilites will attract more corporate clients who will push up the profit margins and assist the racing teams with sponsorship deals.

I think we will also see some substantial price rises in the next few years.

[Piglet]

Calm down Mr Invisible....did you read the rest of my post?

The "Im sure it was related to the water shortage" might have given you some idea of my views.

The ACO are clearly trying to deal with some of the historical problems on the sites, there is a huge lout culture, there is a lot of mess, there is a lot of wasted water and there is a lot of wasted space. 

Where do I say that they are to blame for that or that is wrong?   I just want them to put fair systems in place, run them properly and enforce them properly and consistently so that everyone knows what is going on.  If they want to ban pools fine - we've never had one and I can see why they would want to ban them for all the reasons I mention in my earlier post.

I work for a number or race organising clubs, we're always wrong as far as punters, marshals and drivers are concerned so if you think I'm just ACO bashing you've picked the wrong person! 

[IanB]

Big M,

      By your comments in a couple of your previous posts ,It would appear that you are a wannabe journalist

( probably wanting a job on the Sun ), We have Attacks on Brits, Northerners, People damaging coaches

( Obviously Brits), Had people Smashing Tables and Glasses(Obviously Brits), Etc.Etc    All obviously Northerners !!

M ,
      visit us at our usual spec on MB and we will show you what Northerners do..........We will offer you a Beer!!!!

and forgive your ranting

[Big_M]

  All obviously Northerners !!

Now I didn't say that this time.    

Might just take you up on that beer just to make sure that you have chilled out and not gone all PC on me.  Whatever next - you will be telling me that Essex Girl jokes are not funny.

Big_M   (female from Essex)   

[Lorry]

This is getting fun.

As for loads of yobs camping in your home town and making lots of noise, I'd just like to mention the Reading Festival.  Generally, I think we're quite well behaved.  We may leave a mess, but we've been allowed to.  Perhaps they should remind us to clear up (we do)

The campsites probably need more organisation, but if they allocate pitches, and teams are split up, they will congregate at one pitch and probably annoy the neighbours.

As for the bars and pools, we are there for a week, without any of the usual campsite facilities - its a bit of harmless fun.

And yes, there was a water shortage in France last year

[Mr. Invincible Mou]

@Piglet... I was not in particular having a go at you Piglet, it just happened that yours was the last post in the thread and contained a "barbed" dig at the ACO (which is how I read the ACOism remark), even though it did go on to mention the water shortage.

Which is why, after the quote I also posted

Plus any other Pool Conspiracy Post !!

 

I am just starting to get upset with what seems to be a growing culture of ACO bashing, simply because people who have been getting away with various freedoms in the past are now being put back on the straight and narrow, and asked to comply with regulations which are there to try and make it a fairer and more enjoyable experience for all. And before anyone gets any thoughts about that comment, I will state that it is NOT aimed at anyone in particular, but just a general feeling I now have about the event. It is why I have decided to stop attending, but perhaps if the ACO can manage to straighten things out a bit, I will consider going again in the future.

However that does not mean I am not man enough to apologise if my original post was miss-understood and caused you some offence. It was not my intention, and I am sorry.

[termietermite]

Coo, Mr Invisible, and I thought I was a lone voice here!  I've said this before but hey, what the heck.  I have been going for the last 30 odd years to a music festival.  You turn up, get parked by an official, and have room for one medium sized tent behind your car.  You are told that if you want to camp next to somebody else, that you meet before you arrive and drive in together.  Otherwise, tough.  Nobody ever moans about this system nor ever has.  Maybe we've just been a bit spoilt at LM.  Allocating pitches seems perfectly fair to me and I know I would be seriously peeved if I'd paid good money for a specific site, only to turn up and find it was full because others had been greedy.  Marking pitches is one of the few ways this can be policed and record crowds make it more difficult every year.

Yes, on a personal level I think it would be a shame if DFH couldn't bring all there paraphanalea (sp?) to MB and entertain us with their hospitality etc but I can see how what they do may be perceived by others as taking up more space than they are entitled to.  We on CA know how many pitches they pay for and we know they are scrupulously fair about it but others do not.  I've seen on other fora, threads about the selfish nature of some campers in "bringing huge lorries and setting up grandstands, syphoning off loads of water for oversized pools etc" and "we get moved off to BSJ having paid for MB."  It would p*ss me off and the ACO needs to be seen to be doing something about it.  The idea that the great race might somehow be spoiled because you have to camp somewhere different is, frankly, ridiculous.  Look how many different sites CA'ers camp on, and how defensive they are about their particular reasons for liking each specific one.  If our mates are somewhere different, we can always walk to meet them - now there's a novel idea!

Please give this ACO bashing a rest.  I suspect in some cases it's just thinly disguised xenophobia anyway.

[DelBoy]

I'm not excusing the 'bashing', but I feel that the ACO have brought a lot it on themselves.  They havn't exactly covered themselves with glory in the organisation department over the years.  Don't forget that they organised it so well that they went bust a few years ago and had to be bailed out.  And why are many of us on tenterhooks for 3 months of the year, waiting to see if/what tickets have been allocated (they have 'lost' my order for this year, in spite of them sending me an order acknowledgment).

And no, the race itself would not be spoiled if the camping rules are changed - but many people (including myself) go for the whole experience, which includes the weeklong partying on the campsites in the company of not only my own group, but other groups from different parts of the county, and from other countries.  If I just wanted to see the race, I would go on Friday and come back Sunday.  There is nothing wrong with the ACO in marking out the pitches, provided that they include a scheme whereby groups that want to pitch together can do so.  There is no evidence of such a scheme being implemented, even for the 'zoning' of some of the sites this year.

I'd be the first to admit that a couple of years ago, some groups had far more space than a) they were allowed and b) they needed, but that has changed and the 4 or 5 groups in the platinum triangle last year actually had less space than they had purchased, bearing in mind that the truck and generator were on waste ground not suitable for camping, and the 'grandstand' was on the banking.  Perhaps we should have put up a large sign telling others that we had over 30 tickets between us!

However, I agree that the ACO should not be blamed for everything.  Most of the changes to the circuit have been forced on them, although I still do not understand the reason to change the esses/entrance to the Bugatti circuit when there are 2 tighter corners on the Bugatti circuit itself!

I have been going to LM now since 1965, and up till now, the whole experience has got better and better every year.  If the ACO do not implement a decent booking system, then I will be re-assessing my own involvement - I know the ACO will not lose any sleep over this, but it does seem that they are trying to solve one problem by generating another.

Over and out - I'm off for a pint!!

Del

[Piglet]

I find it incredibly frustrating that voicing an opinion is seen as "ACO bashing" (I'll ignore the xenophobic comment which given the make up of this forum is actually quite amusing).

I wrote a whole lot more but frankly it's not worth the effort. 

[Piglet]

However that does not mean I am not man enough to apologise if my original post was miss-understood and caused you some offence. It was not my intention, and I am sorry.

No probs, I'm quite difficult to offend - you'd need to try waayyy harder

[Lorry]

Spot on Delboy & Piglet

[smokie]

Perception is reality and all that...

The ACO, other campers etc see large areas maked off and apparently not in full use and therefore assume that people have used more than their fair share.

So doesn't having marked pitches fix this problem?

It also helps the problem of people with tickets turning up date and the Full sign being up.

So all in all it seems fairer to me, even though I don't like the idea...


The only oddity was that the zoning plan seemed to omit some fairly large areas (e.g. the Golden Triangle) - maybe they intend reserving these for ticketless late arrivals.

[Andy Zarse]

paraphanalea (sp?)

Paraphernalia

[Andy Zarse]

Please give this ACO bashing a rest.  I suspect in some cases it's just thinly disguised xenophobia anyway.

In my opinion it's the ACO who are the xenophobes.

[knetter]

The only good thing about the zoning and allocated space control is that we will not have any more discussions about who is using to much space, this will end fairly quick in this way. However, joining sites between groups will become more and more difficult, but like term.. said, we could always walk!

Now I am just hoping they will let us in with our bar, whitout accusing us of selling beer to spectators.