Friday, January 12, 2024 – Bordeaux, France
Jan 15th, 2024 by rallyadmin
The PA system on the ferry goes off at 6:45 announcing that the restaurant is open for breakfast and that we will be docking at 7:30. I’m up after a surprisingly good sleep in the upper bunk of the tine interior cabin that we booked for the overnight crossing. Plus, the crossing was smooth as glass, so smooth that it was hard to tell that we were actually crossing the English channel, notorious for rough seas.
The “restaurant” is actually a typical resort style buffet with the usual fare. Usual and pricey. I somehow miss that everyone else is sitting in the dining area and I sit near a window watching the shore lights slowly emerge in the dark. Back to the cabin and out to the top of the stairs to the car decks.
Promptly at 7:30 the cars start rolling off the ferry and in a few minutes we are in Cherbourg, France. The trip has now well and truly started.
Our route is southeast out of Cherbourg and then south through Tours. WE notice that we are going to pass around Le Mans, home of the world famous 24 Heures du Mans endurance race. For a racer, this is near to a religious experience to go to the site of the greatest sportscar race in the world. Slight change of route. Off to Le Mans.
We come into Le Mans and follow the signs to the track. The track for the race is a combination of public roads and purpose built track. The track portions are closed, of course, but the public roads are open and we join the track where the closed portion meets the famous Mulsanne Straight, a 3.7 mile punctuated by 2 chicanes. The road is a two lane road with full emergency lanes on either side. The only thing that gives away its occasional use as part of the racing circuit is the Armco barrier that runs from the ground to maybe 4 feet high to on both sides that keep odd errant race car from running off uncontrollably into the surrounding forest.
In the past, the straight was just that – a 3.7 mile straight. To get some perspective on that length, an entire lap at Sebring International Raceway is only 3.6 miles and Sebring is one of the longest tracks in North America. In 1992, because top speeds had been flirting with 250 mph on the straight, the FIA decreed that no race track straight away could be more than 2 kilometers long so 2 large chicanes were put into the straight to break the length into pieces that complied with the new edict.
Of course, the chicanes are blocked off by barriers and the public that doesn’t know the layout of the circuit would even see them. The other noticeable feature of the Mulsanne is the hill approaching the village of Mulsanne which gives it’s name to the straight. The hill was originally built to help the drivers deal with the extreme speed the cars were generating, more of a reference than anything. After the Mercedes Benz flips off the hill in 1999, the hill was lowered in 2001 by 6 meters to prevent the cars from becoming airborne.
We drive the Mulsanne, trying to imagine what it must have been like to drive 3.7 miles at speeds of over 200 mph. At the end we turn right through the Mulsanne turn, the site of many accidents, onto the Indianapolis straight, one of the darkest sections of the circuit during the night hours of the race. At Arnage, the circuit returns to the purpose built track and is blocked by barriers. At the road-about we drive back to take some pictures and it’s back on the road.
We take a small detour down to a small French village, Le Dorat. Pinky and the Clemos know a British ex-pat couple, Paul and Jayne Dixon, who live there on a small farm. It’s an interesting drive through the French country on reasonably quick two lane roads. In a few hours we are there, trying to make friends with their two donkeys, Monty and Pedro. They came with the property and, frankly, if you don’t have any food for them they couldn’t care less about who is standing across the wire fence.
We stay for about an hour eating some fine cheese, pate and olives while they catch up on what it’s like to move to the middle of a rural French village. Then back in the vehicles and on the road again to Spain.
We get back to the fast but boring autostrada and work our way to our destination in Bordeaux.
After a bit of searching we find a cheap hotel that ends up being more of a youth hostel than a true hotel. Physically finding it is a bit more difficult involving driving up a tramway by mistake. But we find it. It has underground parking, a good thing. It’s clean, another good thing. There’s no a restaurant anywhere nearby, not a good thing. But it’s late and we heat up some ratpacks for dinner. (Ratpacks: ready to eat military rations that you only have to put the pack in boiling water to heat. Not bad actually and some quite tasty.)
It’s been a long day. Tomorrow, the walled city of Salamanca.
Obi-wan