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The driver’s parade was scheduled to start at
six o'clock and to run for an hour or so in the town. If you've read my
story from last year you'll know that we managed to catch the tail end of the
parade as we were on the way to the restaurant to eat. It's quite funny
really, I'd been going to Le Mans for 20 years without really giving much
thought to attending the annual Friday night parade, but after last year's brief
introduction to it, it seemed that both Ian and I were keen to see the
whole thing this year. So it was that that we found ourselves searching for
three parking spaces in the crowded centre of Le Mans at about 5:15 - not the
easiest things to find on this particular evening - but we struck it lucky and
got parked only a short walk away from where the parade was passing by and soon
got to a good spot by the side of the road ready to watch the parade. The only
problem was that as it started at 6 p.m. it probably wouldn't reach us for
another hour! So that meant it was time for a beer....
The weather was also having a bit of a laugh
with us, as it moved from rain to sunshine then back to rain again over and over
again. The problem was that it wasn't cold at all - in fact it was very hot when the
sun came out - so you couldn't leave your coat on. But you knew when you
took it off the chances were that in five minutes time you’d be putting it back
on again!
It wasn't long before people started arriving on
the road and in front of us handing out free newspapers and other things
(including the prettiest girl I saw in Le Mans all weekend - heck, you can keep
your Hawaiian Tropic girls......!).
We got to see a
few exotic cars, an old Courage (or was it still a Cougar then?) plus another
old Courage - Yves
himself, who gave us a cheery wave.
There was even a parade of Corvettes albeit
somewhat brief - I think there were only 4 or 5 cars involved.
Eventually the cars started coming around with
the drivers, most of whom were happy to get out to walk up to the crowd to sign
autographs in answer to the pleas of the children (but did those French
children have to scream so loudly?!)
I was able to take what I hoped would be quite a
few good pictures while the driver parade was going on but it was a bit of a
worry that it was taking so long. We were due to go and eat at eight o'clock,
and by about half past seven we had only seen the drivers from the first dozen
or so cars.
Things did move on more quickly after that however, and it wasn't
long before the final drivers, those from the three Audi's, were coming round
the corner towards us. I was actually quite disappointed with them, as they
seemed pretty disinclined to get out of the cars to
come and sign autographs. Bearing in mind that Audi had been the star of the Le
Mans show pretty well every year since 2000 it would have been nice to see the
drivers make a little more effort - purely my opinion, of course.
We finally got away from the tail of the parade
at about five to eight and made our way to the centre of the town - up a large
number of excruciatingly steep steps - to our dinner rendezvous at the
restaurant Le Fontainebleau in the main square. We were greeted by a
very relieved Madame; bearing in mind that she had an empty table for 11 people
laid out which we had booked in advance for one of her busiest nights of the
year, unsurprisingly, she was rather pleased to see us arrive! By now the weather had closed
in again and it was very dull and damp, but it was good to get under cover with
the prospect of some good food to follow
As there was foie gras on the menu, my choice of
starter was easy. I also chose what was apparently the
speciality of the restaurant as my main meal - a kind of fish pie in a bowl with
pastry on top - although I'd had the same dish somewhere else before. It was
around this point out that I started feeling a little unwell. I'd suffered a
migraine the previous day and began to feel very tired. Although the migraine
was almost gone, my stomach was a bit out of sorts for some reason.
Disappointingly, the feeling grew worse while I was eating my starter. By
the time my main meal arrived I had difficulty finishing at. But I did manage
the rather good apple pie that followed!
Again, thanks to the text message I sent Jayne
at the time, I can say that we left the restaurant at about quarter to twelve to
head back to the hotel. The journey was brief - fortunately Le Grand Lucé is
only about half an hour's drive away. When we arrived, perhaps because of the
hour and the fact that we were all rather tired, there seemed to be less fuss
about the selection of rooms than is sometimes the case! I grabbed a room
fairly quickly and shared with Jonathan. That of course meant that he
had the advantage of a room to himself the following night while I was walking
the circuit.
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