2009 - Not sure if I will bother

[Bas]

Actually 2008 was one of our better years in Le Mans.

After nearly a decade on MB we were a bit fearfull of the relocation to HA, but upon arrival Monday we found a nice spot on mid HA-sud near Smokie/Canada Phil and FS.
We are self-sufficient on electricity and know how to hotwire a watertap, after fencing off a decent plot we settled in fine.

HA was not bad at all, sure there was the occasional w*nker with 2am techno sh*te, the moped/quad idiots racing up and down and on Thursday it got rather busy, so busy we found a bunch of guys trying to put up their camp within the perimeter of ours.
But all in all it was not bad, the toilets were fine and the new toiletblock just after the new entrance to the track was even better, showers were working but busy as usual.

On Thursday a drive to La Chartre-sur-le-Loir, where we had a very good lunch at the Hotel de France with at the table next to us the very friendly Jacky Ickx and his daughter (not Vanina).

Friday we decided to get away from the madness and we went for golf and lunch in Belleme, only when we got back from downtown Le Mans at midnight we saw some of the chavs near HA but decided not to stick around.

Watched quite a lot of the race too, Saturday the start(proceedings) from the grandstand, after 6 pm we slowly made our way up to Tertre Rouge, to retire to HA for dinner and drinks.

Nightime viewing at Tertre Rouge, a couple of hours sleep and we went to Arnage corner at 7 am followed by breakfast and watching the cars on the Mulsanne straight.
Then a little nap and back to the grandstand for the last few hours.

A great week, HA was fine, we avoided the chav element completely, bringing bikes was absolutely great, the KangarooTV was very usefull too, finally it was nice to meet a few CA-ers that I hadn't met before.

Can't wait for the Classic although for that no camping but staying in a house in downtown Le Mans.
Only negatives, the hassle with the campsite tickets and the keyed cars of our neighbours at HA.

I will bother for Le Mans 2009!

[Lord Steve]

My enforced decision to stay at home this year meant that I suffered the agonies of not being able to spend months planning the trip in meticulous detail, allocating tasks to Tres Hombres team members, organising the tour shirts, booking the tickets, endlessly checking the camping gear and making unending lists etc etc. Oh bloody hell I missed that!!!!!
The TV coverage was pretty good and the internet link to Radio Le Mans brought a smidge of the atmosphere chez moi but not being trackside was agony.
I've spent the last 13 years camping on Maison Blanche and whilst I've had some fantastic times I am getting a bit long in the tooth for ant-infested tents and warm beer. (I know, I know - get a gennie and a fridge but I just cant be arsed)
So, the planning has started for next year and it looks like we'll be flying to Paris and taking the TGV to LM staying in a hotel.
Anyone had any experience of decent hotels in town (clean, comfortable and not overpriced). Will I need to be getting a reservation now?

Cheers

Steve

[termietermite]

You'll need to have got a reservation about 5 years ago, Steve.

Seriously, we like the Galaxy opposite the station but it will probably be booked by now.  I think Lynx has a few contacts though who may still have room.

[Fran]

The FIA GT race from Adria that was just on telly looked good.   

Might be a nice visit for next year - drive over after LM for an extended hols!   

F

[csitops]

I felt the same as you Big_H a couple of years ago, however I kept on going and started to enjoy it all over again. Unfortunately, I had everything booked for this year but with about 5 days to go I ended up in hospital for a week. All my mates went and I had to stay at home which in itself sent me crazy. I’m already booking for 2009 and after missing just one year, one thing is for sure, I will not be missing another.

[NorwayNick]

This was one of the best years for me at Le-mans, we had good company in the Liverpoolboys and Lawnmowerman paying the odd visit, also a nice group of French race fans from Lehave who arrived with there van on a breakdown truck and spent the first 3 days fixing it, but they were friendly and tried to communucate with us even if they did not speak so much English. I do wonder if they were more friendly to us because we were camped under a Norwegian flag.
BN was alittle mad when we tried to find our pitch they had missed out the 2 rows we were on completely, but the Liverpoolboys had blagged us a pitch next to them so that was great. We did not see any of the theiving that went on the year before, other than a bottle of Pepsi.
The Football element was lower i felt this year but i did witness 2 idiots throwing water balloons into a boxster with the top down, but my sugestion for avoiding this to join in with Termiee and enjoy the drive out in the country away from the idiots that are too drunk to get there, you do not need to avoid Le Mans because of it but just adapt with the times. It used to be the thing to do to drive to arnage and look at the nice cars now it is like running the gauntlet. But now i think it is better to drive your car out to the Great British welcome and enjoy the time in the company of other car enthusiasts not beer enthusiasts.

I for one intend to come for many years to come, but i do not expect things to always be the same just make the best of what is going on around.

[Fran]

Not quite on thread, but what happened to the chap who dropped an engine on his foot 3 weeks or so before LM - did he get there? 

Might have been kiwipugfan, but equally might not - seem to remember it was someone coming from a fair distance!

F

[NorwayNick]

Steve i did this one year you will miss the atmosphere and still need some where to take a break during the race, i recomend hireing a motor home if you want some comfort.

[Bas]

Steve, we are organising something for 2009 where you can rent a house/appartment locally for reasonable prices.

Something like; clean and reasonable accomodation (and possibly shuttle transport) for clean and reasonable people who can be trusted with somebody else's home without a gazillion caution.

drop me a pm if you're interested, I am going to visit several places at the classic with my local friends.

[termietermite]

If you're prepared to be a short drive away, I do know of a stonking gite round here which will probably be free if you book soon.  5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, with pool.  Not cheap but great (the owner used to work for Lotus, back in the day.)

I also know a small hotel, but again it's near me so a bit of a drive away (well known to those who've done the "Cavalcade".)  There are plenty of local cab firms who could do the driving. It normally takes us about 35 mins door to door (even on Sunday morning of the race). Just a thought.

[tommy84]

Well, I don't get the point of that thread. Sadly there were 10 cars keyed on HA, but that is sadly the risk whilst attending a major event. The same can happen around football stadiums or whatever. I just feel sorry for the owners.
The stealing is a common practice, as it looks like especially on Bleu, but you can prevent if you know about.
Our genny was fitted to my wheel with a motorbike insurance chain and lock and the wheel protected with a special bolt, all valuables inside the locked car and the key at night IN my sleeping bag, not somewhere in the tent.
Call me crazy, but my camera and lenses together with my friends had a value of around 4000€, 2500€ of that my equipment.

Apart from the above mentioned keyed cars I only experienced very friendly people on HA. The Beer Disposal Team seemed to be friendly, I had no further contact with them, but there was nothing to complain about.
The english group with at the junction on the other side of the Disposal Team was friendly as well. Great party on thursday, all very friendly people and probably due to their age it was possible to sleep next to their gazebo later that night. 2am and it was done.
Also the guys between that group, us and the Pistonheads were all very kind, we helped them erecting their tent (they said it takes 10min in the shop ), they gave us some beers, we loaded a flat battery with our genny, got a pack of smoke on sunday afternoon.

Hey, HA is a party zone, but I can't complain at all. I was sleeping good every day, nothing destroyed, nothing nicked, not a single problem with other people.
Spend a few minutes at the roundabout coming from the parade, but for me there's no point standing there, and I had the wrong clothes on, a little cold it was.
Also on Friday there's a meet and greet of the German Sportscar magazines on Houx (and their forum members), so that's the way to go. Sadly Richard Lietz didn't find time this year, but 2007 we had Stefan Mücke joining us for 30min and 2006 T2M engineer Martin Stessl spend 2 hours answering EVERY question.
So with the new tram that's the perfect relaxed friday for us starting with the pitwalk at noon. Hopefully Embassy Racing will stay for some more years

The only thing that annoys me is that I don't have media accreditation with track access unlike in the Le Mans Series. Those catch fencing and the new Esses/Tertre Rouge really took away some atmosphere.

2009 planning has already started, ordering tickets via a fair priced dutch agency saves you some nerves

[Big_M]

For me it wasn't just the hooligan element.

We have always gone to the driver's parade on Friday night.  It is a great way to meet the drivers and enjoy the carnival atmosphere.  But this year only a handful of drivers actually made it out of the cars to give autographs/posters etc.  As a consequence, several people were jumping over the barriers and climbing on the cars to get to the them.  Now if I owned one of those classic cars, I would be pretty pissed off with someone jumping on the running board.  The French security seemed to be disinterested.   

As we went by tram, we had to pass through some of the roundabout antics. Betime we were there the Police were in full force so the activity was subdued.  But it was almost impossible to walk down the pavement due to people watching the cars.

Now I don't actually mind the music and with the aid of ear plugs, can sleep through it quite well.  The problem was Sunday night - we usually like to leave early to get back to the UK - can't use ear plugs or I will sleep through the alarm.  Thanks to some assholes playing their music loud until 3.20 am, I had three hours sleep.  Not what you need before a long drive.  Fairplay to the guys in the purple TVR Chimaera who left at 6.00 while we were packing up and used an air horn to make sure the whole camp knew of their departure. 

I have never had anything stolen from my tent or damage done to my car in five years - but it is only a matter of time. 

[Piglet]

We're not going next year, for me it's the annual aggro of getting a group of camping passes on MB - I don't know what else I have to do, I applied for MB/Bleu before the race last year and got BSJ 

For KK getting media accreditation means jumping through increasingly higher hoops and then the "what are they going to chuck in at the last minute'ness" of the ACO with regard to how and where the media can work.

The chav aspect is too tedious and I really really struggle without sleep - this year was fantastic, the only night that was loud was Sunday night and that was Audi's party and I suppose they deserved to be able to party!  I sleep in earplugs but that doesn't help with something like the w**k*r boys in the truck last year.  I can't spend a week without sleeping, drive home and then go back to working 12 hour days, it just doesn't work.   This year we didn't arrive until Wednesday and that was better, if MB continues to be allocated and the ACO decide I'm worthy of tickets (or I have a brain transplant and buy from an agency ) we might give it a go again and just come down for the long weekend. 

We're definitely not going next year as we have a house move and a build project to deal with, we're hoping to do Sebring and the Classic in 2010 and there are a whole load of other events we'd like to get to but haven't had enough holiday to do and then we'll see. 

Our plan for 2009 is a "it's not Le Mans" party in Dorset, so we'll pitch tents on the garden (actually we'll be living in a caravan so perhaps we won't bother!), we'll watch LM on TV, drink beer, listen to RLM and BBQ dead cow 

[Bas]

Sorry Big_M but your story sounds a bit like complaining for the sake of complaining.

For me it wasn't just the hooligan element.

Sure and that can be avoided like many others here have explained.

We have always gone to the driver's parade on Friday night.  It is a great way to meet the drivers and enjoy the carnival atmosphere.  But this year only a handful of drivers actually made it out of the cars to give autographs/posters etc.  As a consequence, several people were jumping over the barriers and climbing on the cars to get to the them.  Now if I owned one of those classic cars, I would be pretty pissed off with someone jumping on the running board.  The French security seemed to be disinterested.

You forget that going to the Parade was much easier because of the tramway this year.
The parade was what it always was and why are you disturbed by people jumping the barriers and getting (too) close to cars that you admittedly don't own.
The French security allowed it obviously upto a point and frankly the parade is a must-see thing once, maybe twice but after that it's more of the same.

As we went by tram, we had to pass through some of the roundabout antics. Betime we were there the Police were in full force so the activity was subdued.  But it was almost impossible to walk down the pavement due to people watching the cars.

If you had gone from the tramway to the nord-entrance of HA you would have had no problems at all.

Now I don't actually mind the music and with the aid of ear plugs, can sleep through it quite well.  The problem was Sunday night - we usually like to leave early to get back to the UK - can't use ear plugs or I will sleep through the alarm.  Thanks to some assholes playing their music loud until 3.20 am, I had three hours sleep.  Not what you need before a long drive.  Fairplay to the guys in the purple TVR Chimaera who left at 6.00 while we were packing up and used an air horn to make sure the whole camp knew of their departure..

Sorry mate I too hate a-holes playing loud music in the middle of the night, but if you _have_ to be up early and can't use earplugs than just accept it, deal with the source, book a later ferry or find a hotel for that night.

Nope the Le Mans week can be very good but you'll have to be informed and that is what CA(guide) is for.

[Robbo SPS]

BAS...

Not getting at you.

My group had been getting bigger and bigger each year. Last year a lot had seen enough, no massive car crashes but a fair list of "issues".

Being the souls we are, we over came them somehow and with a lot of help from people who use this site.

The "knob" element are too simular to those i meet dy in , day out, so i either confront them ( sometimes risky - i have got away with it most times ) or ignore it. f**k em. There sad little deparved minds can only cope with one being, regrdless of which country they live in.

We have got through..

Bottle of red wine smashed over an open TVR ( sister driving )
Bottle of piss thrown at bus.
Bottle of beer thrown in open wondow.
Pint and glass thrown over me ( small confrontation afterwards )
Car door wrecked fom un-insured car
SPS banner nicked ( and recovered from rick )
Theif caught in our camp on Maison Blanche
Broken motorbike
Idiot controllers and CRS, Customs
Brittany Fisheries ( says it all )
Loud German loved music - suropop stuff.
Gennies that were "stopped " in the night


All got sorted, and most people actually helped to remidy it. The folks i thought who damaged the genny helped us fix it ( always helps having SKY tv when football is on )

I couldnt go this year, and was a little gutted. The girlfriend wasn't, but i'm already sorted for going next year.

** Would i guess you live in a nice area ?? **