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Every year I go to Le Mans and every year when I
start writing up my story, I wish I'd made a decent note of what we did and when
we did it..... I even took two notebooks with me this year for the purpose
but still failed miserably. The problem is that I start with all good
intentions, writing good notes while I'm there for the first couple of days and
then practice and qualifying kick in, putting me a couple of days behind from
which I never seem to recover! Next year I'm going to have to put notes
onto my mobile or maybe download some app to actually record them!
So, to Tuesday - the fabled 'Day of Rest'.....
James and I had nothing in particular planned, so it was a good chance to take a
slow start to the day. If there was a plan, it was the same one as most
mornings, to go up to the Bar Havane for breakfast....
There was one thing we did intend to do - to check
out our tickets with the ACO. Only a few weeks before this year's event,
the ACO discovered that they had a problem with the tickets, in that they were
apparently turning black when exposed to the sun or hot conditions - like on a
car windscreen! I jest not! It was apparently something to do with
the card they were printed on or maybe the ink that was used. It was
probably fortunate for the ACO that there wasn't a huge amount of sunshine
predicted for the week..... But it meant that for the first time ever, my
ticket remained either in my pocket or in my camera-bag for the whole week,
instead of being the usual prominent feature in a ticket holder around my neck!
James and I took our by now traditional visit out
to Arnage village to visit the patisserie/boulangerie there for our fix of
fromage and jambon baguettes for lunch. The weather was pretty dull by
this time but we still walked down to the river for an enjoyable half hour of
complete peace and quiet, albeit watching the progress of some
unpleasant-looking grey clouds.
After our lunch at Arnage we decided to pay a
visit to the circuit for the first time this year. On our way there, we
passed the Le Belinois restaurant at Moncé en Belin where we would be
taking dinner on Friday night with Ian and the Tourists. Or at least we
thought we did..... More on that later.
We didn't actually know if the circuit itself was
open to the public, but we knew the museum would be, so that's where we headed
for, having parked up the road on the verge nearby (as the car parks were
closed). We weren't actually aiming for the museum - as we did the museum
trip two years ago, neither James or I were particularly inclined to do it again
this year, but we did want to have a look around the shop. And it would
have been all too easy to spend a lot of money in there, particularly in the
book section, but I resisted the temptation, limiting myself to a keyring and a
car sticker! We did manage to establish though that we didn't need to do
anything with our tickets and we were told that provided we kept them out of the
sun, we shouldn't have any problems.
So having done that and with nothing else really
planned for the afternoon, we checked to see if we could actually get into the
circuit and the answer was yes. So just before 2 pm, we walked through the
entrance and into an almost deserted circuit. We walked along behind the
grandstands and up onto the empty concrete 'tribunes'. It was actually one
of the more surreal moments I've experienced at Le Mans over the years.
The pit garages were all occupied of course, with mechanics and team personnel
working on the cars, the occasional engine bursting into life and cleaning
vehicles trundling up and down the pit straight clearing up the dust and
detritus. But no spectators. Empty grandstands and tribunes.
Actually, not 100% true, as we did see 4-5 other people in the 45 minutes or so
that we spent there, but it was a strange experience, bearing in mind what this
spot would look like in just a few days time.
The only other thing that we had in mind as a
possibility for Tuesday related to the arrival at Le Mans of Paul Truswell of
Radio Le Mans. For the last two years we had managed to meet up with
Paul on the Tuesday afternoon - last year with the bonus of a number of his RLM
colleagues. We knew already that Paul wasn't driving himself to Le Mans
this year, he was in fact a passenger with his co-commentator Paul Tarsey, who
had also collected Charles 'Chuck' Dressing from the airport on his arrival from
the States. Paul's arrival was a bit later this year, but eventually he
confirmed that they were approaching Le Mans and we agreed to meet them at the
Bar Havane as we did last year.
I guess it was around 5.45 when Paul, Paul and
Chuck arrived and it was a case of refreshments all round - and let's talk Le
Mans! The beauty of having the chance to talk with these guys is that they
have such an incredible depth of knowledge on all things sportscars and
sportscar drivers. I've known Paul Truswell for quite a few years now and
have been able to spend some time with him at Le Mans on quite a few occasions
and it's always good to listen to (and ask questions of) the Honorary President
of Team DoT! You also learn of strange coincidences, like the fact that
Paul Tarsey lives in Emsworth, where I was born (and my father before me)!
Unfortunately, I didn't bring my 'proper' camera
with me, so had to make do with my iPhone, and the resulting photos wouldn't
normally rate inclusion, but as they're all I've got, I've included them anyway!
But before long the time came for our three guests
to take their leave and go off in search of their digs with RLM for the rest of
the week, so we said our farewells. James and I were hungry and decided to
head straight off from the bar to eat. After our successful trip to Del
Arte the evening before, we thought we'd give that another go - we even had to
wait in the car park for the restaurant to open!
My starter was OK, but I goofed massively with my
main - another pizza. James had sensibly decided to hit the merguez pizza
again but I fancied a change and went for the 'con carne' version. I'd
expected a normal pizza with a light sprinkling of meat but did a double-take
when it arrived at the table. The entire pizza - from edge to edge - was
covered with a centimetre thick layer of very dry and grey minced beef. If
I said it tasted of cardboard, I would be doing cardboard a severe disservice.
It was inedible. I tried to scrape off what looked more like a layer of
ground tarmac but it was so thick and glue-like that it took the tomato and
cheese layer with it. I really should have sent it back, but I felt
embarrassed, I had ordered it, after all - but surely it wasn't supposed to be
that bad???
The saving grace came with the dessert, as I
indulged in pannacotta again. The meal didn't take long and having started
at 7, we were back at the hotel by mid-evening, ready for another good night of
putting sleep in the bank ready for the two qualifying evenings that were
tantalisingly just around the corner....
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