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We spent about 10 minutes or so checking out what
seemed fairly limited parking opportunities, when all of a sudden, we happened
upon an excellent car par, only a few minutes walk from our goal. So we
secured the car and our worldly goods and headed up towards the Place and
started looking around. We'd actually arrived before any of the
scrutineering had started, but - almost predictably - the first people we bumped
into were Walter (lemansfan from Ten Tenths) and his friends Tom and Evelyn.
Within minutes we were joined by another Tenths regular, Eric (batmobile) and
his son.
Thanks to Evelyn, we got ourselves on a tour of
the inner scrutineering area, but our timing was a little unfortunate, as there
was still very little going on as the first cars were only just beginning to
line up to go through. Although we did spot a certain Johan Hindhaughsson
interviewing driver Steve Johnson for Radio Le Mans....
We stayed at scrutineering for a couple of hours,
seeing such notables as Audi and Pescarolo arrive.
We actually moved away
from the scrutineering 'square', deciding instead to hang around the area where
the teams were arriving with the cars, which was both more entertaining and less
of a crush of bodies, bearing in mind it was Sunday afternoon.
We eventually departed at around 5 pm and walked
back to the car which was safe and sound where we'd left it and Emily did an
excellent job to take us through the town centre and out again back to our
hotel. We were now able to check in and I found that I had my third
different room in three years - but all three of them were side by side - I was
just pleased to be facing the rear of the hotel - much quieter!
We decided to renew our acquaintance from last
year with the Hippopotamus Grill for dinner - the lure of the foie gras being
simply too great.... This was followed by excellent steak brochettes and
the obligatory crème brulée for dessert. The only downside of the evening
meal was tooth-related for me. I had some to Le Mans with a very loose
crown but while I was eating my steak I lost a large filling from a different
tooth. I really could have done without that!
After the meal we headed back to the hotel for a
relatively early night ready for another full day at scrutineering tomorrow.
That was the theory of course - the reality, having taken my laptop to Le Mans
with me again, was that I spent the next couple of hours on Tenths catching up
with what else was going on!
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