[Otter74]

My mom and her husbnad have rented a house in the Dordogne valley in France for the month of June, and I get to go out for a visit to hang out and relax and do whatever. All together, pretty awesome, and I'll bring a bike with me, too (Bike Friday NWT that packs into a suitcase) My girlfriend's schedule means this will be some time in the latter half of June.

I have a couple of very good friends in London who only come to the US every other year, so I plan to visit them at the beginning or end of the trip, unless they can come visit the house in France. This led to me realizing that the Goodwood Festival of Speed is in late June, and hey, I could probably fit that into the trip if I wanted to. Then, today, I realized that Luh Mans is in the middle of June, and that was an option, too. Maybe easier schedule-wise than the FoS.

I have never been to either event, but both are sort of bucket list-level events, so both highly appealing. but since I have never been, I have no idea what the logistics of going to either event are like. Put another way, what is the pain-in-the-ass factor?

If I go to Goodwood or go to London first, I will fly into LHR and then either fly to Bordeaux or probably take a train to Brive-la-Gaillard and rent a car there to drive to the house, near Sarlat-la-Caneda. If I go to LeMans, i would fly into CDG, rent a car there, drive to LeMans and then to Sarlat. Fit London into the end of the trip.

Either event is going to be expensive to get tickets to, but that's fine because hey, you only live once. But I don't want to spend ****loads of money. Like maybe one day of Goodwood instead of two. But is driving there an epic pain?

LeMans seems to have no other option than to drive, but what is it like getting there, being there, and getting around? Can you sleep in your car or something, or just sleep wherever? (I did this at Daytona once, for instance)

I figure there are some number of you who have been to eithe or both events, and can tell me things that will help me make better-informed choices.

Also, I know nothing about what I might need to know about renting and driving a car in France. On all of my trips to Europe, I never drive. The only exception to this was in Poland, where my girlfriend's uncle lent us his Clio to drive to the Baltic coast.