Aysedasi's Le Mans Story - 2000

Le Mans 2000 - Ayse's Story

Page 6 - Saturday 17th June - Lunch at Le Grand Lucé - Come on Chaps!

Saturday morning started off where Sunday afternoon and evening ended with lovely bright sunshine, just what we needed. We had a good breakfast in the hotel and then packed up and headed down to the cars to get under way. Having gained an extra car (Robert's hire car) we now had more space for both people and luggage. Unusually for the Tourists it was quite a quick start to the Saturday morning as although we had plenty of time, it was a decent distance down to Le Grand Lucé. Martin and Robert had donned shorts with the intention of blessing the spectators at Le Mans with the stirring sight of their knees. Dodgy socks though Martyn.... Alan was changing into his very bright white trainers and (for no obvious reason) I was urged to capture the moment.

We left Fontevraud at about 9.30 and I had assumed that we would be heading directly to Le Grand Lucé however those who have read any of my previous stories will be aware that Tourist life in France revolves largely around food and wine, not a motor race! So our next stop was at a wine merchant to stock up for home. Soon we were back on the road and arrived at the Hotel Restaurant Le Cheval Blanc where we argued over rooms for a while and had a cooling beer before setting off into town for some sustenance. I didn't eat at this stage as I was still protective of my delicate stomach condition but the others indulged in meats from the charcuterie and pastries from the patisserie. I was holding back for an all-out, do or die assault on a merguez!

I made my now-customary visit to the maison de la presse for a copy of Autohebdo. By now I was getting very keen to press on to the circuit and I could do without all this eating and drinking nonsense, bearing in mind that it was now about 12.30 pm - we needed to be on the road! But there was no point trying to hurry the rest of the Tourists who were happy to sit in the sun munching on the local produce. When we finally got back to the hotel we checked out the dinner menu as we decided to eat there again (as we did last year). We had by now given up on Le Belinois at Moncé-en-Belin as it just wasn't as good as it had used to be. At long last at 12.45 we finally set off from Le Grand Lucé for the journey to Le Mans. As far as I was concerned, the real purpose of the 2000 Le Mans trip was about to begin...