Post 2021 Le Mans De-brief

Well that was the most strange experience at Le Mans this year. We heard around 35,000 attended. It was most odd. You could walk quickly anywhere……..The ACO Grandstand was perhaps 50% full.

Of course the main race was rather boring given only Toyota running but Glockenhaus did a grande job. The French where loyal to the one car runner Alpine that really was last years Rebellion car…with a new paint job. Come on 2022 and 203 when Audi, Porsche and Ferrari return for the first time in main class since the 1960’s.

GTO Pro was where the action was and LMP2. Porsche No 92 after total right-off on Thursday shipped in a new chassis from Germany and where ready to go on Saturday. They could not match the No52 Ferrari of the 63 Corvette , coming in 3rd.

Our normal accommodation in the centre of the Le Mans ville not available this year, so we decided to stay some 70K away north east of the track at Mortagne-sur-perche in a lovely 15C hotel.

It was great run in very day taking around 1 hour door to door., on what is effectively an old roman road. Two speed camera’s on the road otherwise straight and fast and most enjoyable.

We were disappointed with food at the Hotel but can thoroughly recommend La Croix D’or. We must have passed this lovely little restaurant over 20 times in prior years. Well worth a stop ,only 5K south of Mortagny.

For our return to UK, rather than come around Rouen from the west side we decided to return to via the east side and cross the Somme south east of Abbeville. It’s much quieter route less traffic and losts of roman straight roads.

Here is the route well worth travelling along provided you have the time and want to avoid the Toll roads and enjoy some proper driving fun.

Radio Le Mans is no longer FM radio station (91.2) only access via internet…..a bloody nuisance but we managed to make it work.

The UK/French Covid testing regime is real pain. UK Passenger Information form is horrible piece media/data entry form to have to play with. Fortunately I had my PC with me, not easy on a Mobile phone. The Eurotunnel API was also not the best but we made it work. The 72 Hour Lateral Flow test worked well, using a UK based company to act as the processor, via a photo upload from France worked really well. The 2 day test needed on return in the UK well sorted.

It took one hour to clear French and UK Immigration at Eurotunnel…….so we missed our allotted train, but actually caught the one we were booked on as we knew there would be delays.

Good to be back home.

Route back from Le Mans to Eurotunnel

Starting at :-

·      Mortagne-sur Perche (Hotel Du Tribunal) **

·      Verneuil-sur-Avre

·      Damville

·      Pacy-sue-Eure

·      Vernon

·      Gaillon

·      Les Andelys (Mistral Restaurant 26 Rue Grande 27700 Les Andelys for Lunch by Seine River in old town)

·      Gournay-en-Bray

·      Poix de Picardie

·      Hangest-sur-Somme

·      Flixecourt

·      Abbeville

·      A16 to Eurotunnel

** La Croix D’Or Restaurant

Le Pin La Garenne located 5Km south of Mortagne