[JohnJL]

Well I had an awesome Le Mans experience. Definitely met and exceeded my expectations.

I arrived on a red-eye flight from Toronto into Frankfurt where my friend Doug met me. This was a big effort for him too...he is in the process of moving to Frankfurt from NYC and was there on his house-hunting trip. He went an bought a car the morning I arrived (a Skoda Superb turbowagon, a great roadtrip and family car, and will do 210kms/hr without complaint) and picked me up straight from the airport. Actually he did better than that, he picked up the car, went to the Getrinktmarkt and picked up 4 cases of beer and a case of wine...

The drive was 780kms and mainly uneventful except for 1.5 hours traffic around Paris. Beautiful countryside. The roadsigns in France are very amusing, especially the brown tourist signs that I suppose are supposed to capture the theme of the region you are in. I didn't catch a lot of pics of those but the images included a squirrel holding either a beaker or a bong, a nuclear plant cooling tower, and an exhausted-looking miner. Who else knew there are active oil pumping derrik fields east of Paris?

Arrival was a bit difficult as we came in at dusk after the ticketcounter was closed. I had booked with Travel Destinations but they didn't send the tickets beforehand so it was a negotiation to get through the gate to our campsite. This was one of the bugs the TRavel Destinations people said they would work out next time. This was their first Le Mans. An earnest attempt at French and a refusal to move out of the way got us through the gate.

The Travel Destination people were great. Porters were waiting for us to move our stuff into the very nice Honeybell tents which were well appointed. Air matresses with fresh sheets and duvets, carpet on the floor, rugs, tables, umbrellas, Le Mans radios, all very well done. Expensive but better than advertised which is so rare. Our tent was within 50 meters of the Porsche Curve hill which made for outstanding viewing and easy access to go from the hill to the tent or their bar for supplies or shelter during the two brief downpours at the start.

Friday is "Mad Friday" with the most fun coming from the Danish camping areas near the Porsche Curves. Traffic queueing along a road is encouraged by ~300 fans and a few instigators to do burnouts...I think the consensus was a Toyota van and a Smartcar both driven by Danish vets were the winners. Both burned their tires down to what must have been the cords. The fans, ourselves included, were just about pissing ourselves with laughter. BTW, the assortment of exotic cars was incredible. More Porsches, Ferraris, Lambos, Konniggseggs (?), Astons but also wildly modified VW T1 and T2s, Triumphs, Morgans, Spykers, Minis, etc. I guess to be espected when y ou assemble a couple hundred petrolheads but very impressive nonetheless.

Here are some early pics, I need to take the kids to the park now but will post more later...