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Le Mans 2011 - Ayse's Story - Page 2 - Tuesday

And off to Le Mans!

As usual, I was up and about early on Tuesday morning.  To be honest, I hadn't had the greatest night's sleep as I'd been quite hot in my room and I guess I was still full of that familiar naïve excitement about what the week had in store!  I went outside for a brief walk when I took the photos below.  It was an absolutely glorious morning.  As I headed back into the hotel I met up with James, and we settled the bill and headed off to the car which was parked around the back of the hotel.  By 9.30 we were on the road and off to Le Mans.

The Hotel Ambassadeur in Cherbourg.      A view of the quay....     ..... the weather was looking very promising!     I was hoping it stayed much like this for the rest of the week!     But it was time to leave the scenic views and head off to - Le Mans!

The roads were almost deserted and the new stretch of autoroute made the journey to Le Mans even quicker than in previous years, even if it did rather confuse James' satnav, which didn't know it existed!  We arrived at our destination at around 12.30. 

I was not in entirely good humour at this point.  On the way, I'd been determined to get a photo of the famous brown Le Mans sportscar sign on the autoroute - which as you can see below, I managed.  But I was having serious camera problems.  My zoom lens had died on me a couple of months ago and I bought another from eBay, which also failed when it arrived.  The seller promised to source me a replacement but finally admitted defeat only days before my departure.  So I'd brought with me my very old 100-300 zoom, which I bought new in 1992.  But it was proving to be unreliable, giving me the dreaded Canon 'Error 99' messages virtually every time I used it.  I had an uneasy feeling about my photography for the rest of the week.....

Always a very welcome sight- the signs to Le Mans on the autoroute.     And here is the sign that is so familiar to regular Le Mans visitors - and boy did I struggle to get this shot with my recalcitrant lens!

It was good to be back to the familiar surroundings of our hotel, however it wasn't possible to book in and deposit out stuff then, so as we were both feeling rather hungry, we drove to Arnage to visit our favourite patisserie there where we bought emmental and jambon baguettes - (unbeknown to us, the first of several for the weekend), plus a delicious almond croissant for me (I'm particularly partial to them!) - which we took to eat at our favourite spot down by the river. 

We drove back along the circuit, through Arnage and Indianapolis corners and up to Mulsanne Corner before finally stopping along the road on the other side of the airport which runs parallel with the grandstands to look across at the familiar and very welcome view.  After this momentary detour, it was off to the supermarket where I stocked up with water and a few other bits and pieces before we retraced our steps back to where we had stopped to search (unsuccessfully) for James' lost tobacco pouch which we thought he had probably left on the roof of the car when we drove off. 

The view from the road, looking across the airport to the circuit. To the left, the Dunlop Bridge and the yellow Dunlop Grandstand.....     Directly in front, the main ACO grandstand     The remainder of the grandstands - dwarfed by the pits grandstand in the background - with the race administration building on the right.

This was James' second bit of bad luck so far as when we got back to the hotel after our meal in Cherbourg the previous night, James realised that his mobile wasn't working.  It seemed likely that his contract hadn't been properly set up for roaming - something to sort out later. 

We still had quite a while to kill before we could return to the hotel and check in so we headed up the road to St. Saturnin and our favourite 'Bar Havane' for coffee outside in the bright sunshine that was now gracing us with it's favours. 

I'd been waiting for a phone call from my friend, Radio Le Mans commentator Paul Truswell, as we hoped to meet him as he arrived in Le Mans - as we had done in 2010.  He phoned about 4.50, saying that he was about 20 minutes away so we quickly headed back to the hotel, booked in at our 'home from home' and had literally just dumped our bags in our rooms (I had room 117, the room that James had last year, creaky floor boards and all, while he was in the room next door), when Paul arrived in the car park.  And he had others with him!  In his car was Charles 'Chuck' Dressing, one of his co-commentators, all the way from the USA, who was fairly seriously jet-lagged, but not only was Charles there, but a second car had joined Paul, with pitlane reporter Joe Bradley plus RLM technical boys Dave Evans and Robin Goodman, the latter being the longest surviving RLM member, going back to the very start in 1987. 

We all drove back to 'our' bar in St. Saturnin for a beer or coffee and spent a hugely enjoyable hour talking about all things Le Mans and Radio Le Mans, before they all headed off to discover where they would be staying for the rest of the week.  Hopefully we would see Paul again before the race.  I kicked myself for not taking any photos while we were at the bar, but the conversation was so entertaining, I didn't give it a second thought.....

After saying farewell to the RLM crew, James and I headed back to the hotel for a brief rest, before heading to Courtepaille for dinner.  Although it was busier there than on any of our visits last year, service was incredibly quick.  I had my usual jambon with steak brochette to follow and we were back at the hotel little more than an hour after we had left it!  This was probably a good thing for James, as he'd been struggling with a tummy upset since the morning and a good night's sleep before the rigours of practice on Wednesday was definitely a good thing.

We had always planned to try and get a couple of good night's sleep on Monday and Tuesday in preparation for the late nights on Wednesday and Thursday - and of course for the race itself over the weekend, when no sleep was planned at all!  So we retired to our rooms before 10 pm to get some rest.