Despite my morning debacle with the trains I made it to Le Mans otherwise relatively unscathed. From there, it was supposed to be simple. Merely take the tram down to the station stop, go collect my tickets, and proceed via tram to the campsite. HA! In France, nothing is that simple. But first, let me summarize the entire Le Mans experience with two points: (1) Le Mans is freaking amazing- if you get the chance absolutely go; and (2) if you can, go with some friends but ABSOLUTELY go with a car.
The first point should be self explanatory and obviously the point of this post is to elaborate on it. To the second point, essentially the entire procedure is designed for those with a car in mind. If you're arriving on foot: don't. Seriously, it is a massive pain in the ass. Allow me to elaborate. I arrived at the train station and everything was groovy. I even had a moment to snap a shot of the regular portion of Le Mans before boarding the tram.
As mentioned, everything seemed relatively straightforward at first. Take the tram down to the last stop- proceed to the expo, collect my tickets, and then take a tram/trolley down to the campsite. No sweat. Well, the first problem arose as the "last stop" prescribed by the website was in fact different from the last site operated by the tram which put me out well south of the MMArena. After talking to one of the girls at that entrance it was clear I needed to backtrack up the hill and around quite a bit to the left before reaching the road that would eventually lead me to the Expo.
In all I ended up walking for well over an hour (and having to ask numerous people for directions despite having it mapped out on google maps) to finally find the Expo where I could pick up my tickets. I then stood in line for 15+ minutes to collect my tickets only to be told that the line I needed to be in was one over. OK, whatever. Finally, I scored the tickets- one for the campsite, the one I would actually use, and the (likely) useless spare.
I asked the girl at the reception how to get down to my campsite without a car and she said "oh you don't have a car?" and gave a frown of disapproval. No, I just went for a 5 mile run and then hauled this massive 50 lb pack into the welcome tent, working up this sweat just to ask you that question. Of course I don't have a car professor! So she told me, and foolishly I believed her, that I just had to leave the welcome area and proceed a bit down the road where a shuttle bus would pick me up.
When I got to the designated spot I realized two things: (1) it is a long freaking way down to the campsite from here; and (2) there were zero shuttle buses running from here to my campsite on that day. Curse you Expo tent woman!! So, after walking for probably an hour and a half I was facing another at least hour walk from the Expo down to my campsite. It should be clear to you already, dear reader, why it is especially important to have a car at Le Mans- but never fear, more reasons will emerge. So, I set off on foot. I did manage to get a good photo of the famous Ferris wheel during the daytime.
When I finally arrived at the campsite I happened to get incredibly lucky. Since I didn't have anyone else with me, or more importantly a car, it was vitally important to secure a campsite where I would, at minimum, feel safe leaving my valuables. As I've found in my travels thus far, whenever you are faced with adversity, the general outcome is more likely than not better than it would have been should things have come to pass as originally intended. I call this the "Ashan Paradox" after the man who tipped me to it way back in Madrid.
In this case the Ashan Paradox held true. As I wandered through the campsite wondering just what in the heck I was going to do, I saw some guys hoisting up an American Flag along a fence. I made a direct line for them and asked (demanded) if I could camp with them. It turned out to be perfect- all 6 of us had no cars. It was 3 Canadians, each with their own tents they had acquired in Amsterdam for 20 euro apiece, and two young-fellas from Cali who were sharing a tent. In all, it was a 5 tent-mega-plex.
After getting all set up, the Canadians went off to track down some supplies from the nearest grocery store. Not wanting to miss the qualifying, the two other Americans and I hung out and first watched the special Aston Martin Qualifying Session which yielded some interesting results including an engine explosion right at our turn viewing area.
Later in the evening we met our next-door neighbors, some really awesome Brits from Brighton: Adam and Dave. Despite their names, I wanted to call Adam Giovanni Ribisi as he looks just like him. And even more impressively, Dave reminded me quite a bit of Captain Jack Sparrow. And neither of those comparisons are in any way negative. In fact, it only made me more impressed with their personas as they were clearly doing their own thing. Obviously Hollywood has locked onto something here with the fellas from Brighton.
That night we accompanied Adam and Dave (i.e. Giovanni & Cap'n Jack) to the main grandstands to watch the qualifying sessions. Wow. I really wasn't prepared for the magnitude that is the Le Mans experience. As the cars went by I did manage to grab a video of the experience. As it tends to get a bit repetitive, we decided to come up with our own Le Mans Qualifying Drinking Game. Here are the rules:
1. You must pick a car. If that car goes by you drink 1 and you assign 2 drinks.
2. Anytime a car goes into the pits you all yell "TO THE PITS!" and everyone drinks
3. Anytime the DeltaWing (or the current year prototype) goes by you yell "AAAAEEEYYY!!!" and everyone drinks.
4. Anytime a car goes for a weigh in, everyone compares their beers and the one with the lowest level has to finish theirs.
5. (Since I was playing with Brits) Anytime a Corvette went by, I had to drink. Anytime an Aston Martin went by, they had to drink.
6. Anytime your car went to the pits (hard to discern from pit row) you had to kill your drink.
6. Anytime your car went to the pits (hard to discern from pit row) you had to kill your drink.
It was an outstanding game and really kicked off a tremendous weekend that would feature, well, more of the same. That night I snapped a great shot of the iconic Ferris wheel (see flickr) and even more cool, a carnival booth offering up a very unique set of prize rabbits.
The next afternoon we awoke a bit bleary eyed and Tazio, Jack, and I decided to check out the pit area during the infamous pit walk. Among the great shots we got, here is one of me with the eventual winner of the GTE AM: the # 50 Corvette. Go America!
The pits were insane, so many people... it was just a crazy (and awesome) environment. You'll have to see flickr for some of the other photos. Here is a shot of a mock up of the eventual winner- the Audi e-tron quattro #1 car.
After perusing the shops area, we ponied up the cash to check out the Le Mans Museum. At first I didn't want to spend the money but I'm glad I did. While I'm no gear-head or otherwise mega-car enthusiast, it's hard to not appreciate some of the amazing pieces of machinery that have come through this race. Hard to pick a favorite but I love the return of Bentley:
I also love this multi-terrain exploring vehicle. In the videos describing it, apparently multiple people had to follow it on foot with spare parts to keep it running. Looked very shirpa-esque. Despite the socio-political implications, it was a serious machine.
After the museum, Jack, Tazio and I went off to the store in search of beer and eventually scored a handsome quantity. The only downside, however, was that there was no way to get it back to the campsite without an absurdly lengthy walk. So, at the grocery store we asked if they could call us a cab and they readily accepted. Meanwhile, we purchased our items which consisted of my fronting for 52 Kronenburg beers as well as a bottle of rum. After buying our goods, much to our astonishment, the owner of the store informed us the taxi wasn't coming- but, in an equal turn of fate, offered to drive us back to our campsite himself. Now that is the proper French hospitality I had heard about- honestly I couldn't be more appreciative of him giving us a lift considering how sick he must be of tourists during the race.
But, it didn't go as entirely well as expected. About halfway to the campsite the traffic seized up due to Mad Friday, where everyone blocks up the road to do burnouts in their ludicrously expensive cars. So we ended up carrying all of these cases of beer approximately 35-40 minutes from the Ferris wheel back to the campsite. That may not seem so bad but storming around with 20 lbs of French beer strapped to each arm is quite the daunting task. All that said, by means of an aggressive rotation scheme, we were able to make it back to the campsite- all beers intact.
Which would be important since, despite all that effort, we would kill them all that very evening. Plus an additional 120 of Josh and Ali's beers... and a bottle of rum. Suffice it to say it was a wild mad evening. And it was pouring rain. Graciously Josh and Ali let us hang out under their tarp, however, unlucky for me water began collecting in the tarp and when the Canadians went to knock it off one side, the remainder on my side came tumbling down providing me with an unwanted and impromptu shower.
Here is a shot of the whole gang doing everything in their power to drink France out of beer.
This was shortly before Tazio began taking swigs of rum and then decided to take a nap on the grass.
Haha, great times. The next morning we shakily emerged from our tents and began mentally preparing for the actual race. Being the idiot that I am, I had at some point in the prior evening engaged Josh in a gentleman's agreement. Specifically, we decided that upon the race start the following afternoon we would kick off the inaugural US vs. England 24 Hours of Le Mans Drink Off. And, yea, it was pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Just prior to the cars going off, we gentlemanly toasted each other with our first beer. The rules are simple: we go drink for drink and the last man standing wins.
We then walked around past the Dunlop curves and set up at our first viewing area. From here I got a great video of all of the cars going by at the start (still trying to upload it- will link when done). We watched the race for a while from this spot, the most exciting element being the battle between the Aston and the Corvette for the GTE Pro division. They exchanged the lead several times which, in the US vs. England drinking game meant we each were taking consequential swigs. Fun day- and even better, just as the race kicked off the sun finally emerged blanketing us in warming rays. After a couple hours we headed to a second spot more or less on other side of the track. At this point we had exhausted our Kronenburgs and Josh and I were faced with drinking my last beers- the Koenigsbier. An 8% alcohol doozy of booze, which tastes bad cold but horrific warm. And warm was how I was serving it.
After watching a bit more we decided to head back to the campsite and cook up something to eat. Back at the campsite Tazio and Jack undertook the arduous task of assembling all of our empty beer bottles into a beer mountain. The end result was impressive and they used no supports- just stacked the bottles up. Here is a shot of me with the tower if you want to count them up.
Josh fired up some excellent pork chops and after filling our bellies with meat and more beer, Tazio, Jack, Ali and I decided to check out the race in the dark (they race for 24 hours after all). It was at this point the greatest moment for the US (ok, maybe second after the Corvette winning GTE AM) of the entire weekend occurred: after almost 12 hours, Josh bowed out of the competition. Which means, the US is the champion of the first US vs. England 24 Hours of Le Mans Drink Off!! Go America!
As this year's US drinking ambassador to Le Mans and reigning champion I want to thank all those who supported me in the past two and a half months on the road, especially my friends hosting the pub crawls- it's because you believed in me and encouraged me to push my limits that I was able to pull out the victory. I owe it all to you guys! And as anyone victorious in a drinking challenge would do, I naturally celebrated with a beer as we watched the cars whizzing past in the night.
Unfortunately I didn't quite have the energy to stay up for the entire 24 hours and so after some brief night viewing I crashed hard. The next morning it was time to pack it up and head on. Even though the race didn't end until 3pm, I had booked a 2:15 train because I heard that as soon as the race ends gypsies come through the campsites and steal anything that isn't nailed down. Since I didn't have a car to lock my belongings in, it was imperative that I get out of dodge. On our way out we swung back by the track and watched the remaining 30-some cars (out of 56 that started) go around. I got one good shot of the Corvette, go US!
Le Mans- what an event, what a party! I'm really glad I went but boarding the train to Paris I knew I was going to need a couple days to recover. I've got eight days there until my flight back to the states and there's a great likelihood I won't see much of the city in the first couple days, ha. In all, it's hard to believe Stint 1 is almost over. In just over a week I'll be on a plane home to see my nephew and marry off one of my best and oldest friends. Plus I'll have some time at the lake, see a few movies, play some golf, see friends and family, and eat lots of Mexican food. I'm really excited to get back, but I think once I'm back I'll miss the constant romping around.
But never fear dear reader, on July 18 I'll be back kicking off Stint 2 with a crazy couple nights in Krakow and Prague and then it's off to London for the Olympics. In some respects I hope the world ends in 2012 because it's going to be tough to top this year.
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