It's always good to get the
first night under the belt at the hotel, waking up in Le Mans. It wasn't a
bad night's sleep in my comfortable little room (the same room, as I recall,
that I've had for the last three years), but I was awake by 6 o'clock (a legacy
of my normal waking time when I'm at work) and although I went back to sleep for
a while, I only lasted until 7.20 when I decided to get up and hit the shower.
James surfaced at a more 'reasonable' time and we were quickly into the car and
off into town for the second leg of scrutineering.
Our biggest amusement of the
day turned out to be in the car park when we arrived at around 10.45. We
used the same car park but, being a Monday, we had to pay and for this very
purpose James had collected together and brought with him a bag containing all
of the small denomination Euro 'shrapnel' that he could find with which he then
painstakingly plied the parking payment machine. After some time putting
in 10 cent coins, the machine took an apparent dislike to this laborious process
and spewed it all out again! Undaunted, James performed the operation
again, only to be rewarded with exactly the same outcome.... I was
beginning to suspect that the machine was only able to accept a certain number
of coins, presumably to prevent it being filled to the brim with 10 cent pieces
- or worse. On paper now, it all sounds pretty unremarkable but at the
time it was pretty hilarious, although not perhaps for the elderly madame who
was awaiting with admirable patience to get her ticket!
We eventually managed to sort
out a ticket (for some of the time that we would be parked - James would need to
go back and top it up later), and trod the familiar path up to the Place de la
République where we wandered around witnessing the arrival of various cars
including Oak, Manthey, ESM and around midday, the three Porsche LMP1s.
We utterly failed to resist
the urge to lunch again at the Galand - one croque madame can never be enough -
before heading back to see the arrival of the Toyotas and Corvettes.
By around 3.45 we had seen
enough. It's a familiar process and (as we discovered when we skipped
scrutineering in 2011) it does need to be done to make the experience complete,
however the waiting can be a little dull, even if the weather is good! We
made our way back to the car but as there was still plenty of time left before
we returned to the hotel, it was an easy decision to take a ride around the
circuit, which I decided to video on my mobile - for posterity! (See
below). It was a
rather bizarre thing to do (but not the first time I've done it over the years)
but there is so much atmosphere and history to capture when driving on the
Mulsanne Straight or on the run down to Indianapolis - even when there isn't a
racing car in sight. I would happily do it at least once every year....
As is our habit when 'doing a
lap', we stopped on the grass verge just before Arnage corner for a short break
in the sunshine, all the while contemplating what would be going on here in just
two days time. As I write this part of the story (many months later), we
know that works are being undertaken here and although the circuit itself may
remain largely unchanged, I gather that the viewing area is likely to look
rather different. We can only keep our fingers crossed that the works are
done sympathetically with at least some thought being given to the needs of
spectators and that one of our favourite viewing points isn't completely ruined.
We drove back to the main
circuit area and carried on over to the dual carriageway near to the ticket and
media collection centre at the Actisud (on the other side of the airport) where
we paused a while to take in the great view of the grandstands beyond the
airport itself.
Having done our little tour we headed back from the
circuit, stopping briefly at the Super U near Arnage where I stocked up with my
favourite water and we began our search for some camping chairs to use later in
the week. It had been a really pleasant afternoon in glorious weather and
we arrived back at base at around 5.45 for a little bit of rest plus a shower
and change of clothes before heading out for dinner.
We thought quite hard about
going back to Del Arte but instead decided to give an old haunt, the Hippo
Grill, another try. We had been there quite a few times over the years but
the food and the service had deteriorated, but the lure of foie gras was just
too great and so we made the short trip up the road for dinner. As it
happens, we had what turned out to be the best dinner we'd ever had there.
The foie gras was excellent and the steak brochette that followed was superb.
The whole thing was rounded off in the best possible way by - you guessed it - a
first class crème brulée. So we did well, but I couldn't help but think
that we just got lucky on this occasion!
The meal over, we made the
short journey back to the hotel for some rest, in the knowledge that Tuesday was
exactly that, our 'day of rest' before the whole event really began to ramp up
on the Wednesday.
