Today at Le Mans

[lowdrag]

Boy, are you guys lucky that this isn't June 2011 at the moment! I expect you've seen on TV about the strikes here (all over raising the pension age to 62) but the effect it is having overall is starting to paralyse life in general. There is not one petrol station open in the Sarthe, excluding motorways; that is according to the news this lunchtime. The supermarket I visited today looked as though a bomb had hit it; fresh fruit and veg shelves empty, meat shelves bare, other shelves very low on stocks. Driving there and back one would have thought the bomb had dropped, so few were the cars seen. People are unable to get to work, car pooling is rife, even people camping in the factory to be able to work and earn a living. People are shivering at home because the fuel oil trucks can't deliver for lack of diesel, I heard this morning.

Luckily it is autumn and few events now, but the last meeting on the Bugatti circuit is this weekend but - will the marshals be able to make it? Will the competitors have enough fuel? Has the ACO itself stocked enough fuel for the meeting?

This has the look of 1968 all over again, when the strikes and demonstrations became more and more antagonistic and dangerous. I hope for all of our sakes it will quickly be over, but just thank your lucky stars this didn't blow up in summer.

[mattviatura]

Let them drink Kronenbourg

[5678]

My Aunt (in-law) lives approx 45 mins from you there. She flew to the UK on Sunday and is currently unsure if she will be able to get home at the end of the week!