Last Minute Le Mans

[beech19]

How feasible is the following. I've been to Le Mans once a couple of years ago but may be leaving it to the last minute this year for a variety of reasons!

Arrive on the Sat and buy tickets on the gate.

No booking for car parking - buy this as well when we turn up Sat.

Sleep in the car, beside the car (if the heat's anything like 2005!!). Not that much sleeping will be done I expect...

Any like experiences/advice appreciated.

Regards

[Alex@POD]

easy, that's just what I did the first time I went... Don't expect to park where you want though...

[//j17]

Might be worth buying a parking ticket for somewhere like Parking Rouge - gets you a base close to the track and at 20 Euro it's not going to break the bank if you find you can't go in the end.

[willdew]

Yes, it's perfectly feasible.

There's nothing to stop you doing all that.

Just depends how comfortable you want your sleeping arrangements to be and how much work you are willing to do to arrange them.

If you know someone else already going though, get them to save you some camping space near them, then you can park your car wherever, and go to their camp site and just set up. That's also feasible, and will get you a better night's sleep.

[cooperlola]

Or try going out to Mulsanne corner - you can kip next to your car in the car park and it's free! (Or has been up to now..)

[beech19]

Cheers for that chaps. I presume then that the officials don't mind if you camp next to your car - or are tents a no no? Also, anyone know what time the race starts this year?

[t5bxr]

I think they are clamping down on tents at recognised car parks,even if you have a parking ticket (like I did for Parking Bleu)if it is full,they won't let you in.
If you can keep off the alchohol,drive away from the circuit for greater chance of some sleep !(sneak into another campsite)

[e36guy]

I think that if you are in a car park you are allowed to erect a small tent by your car but no elaborate set ups like you get in the campsites. That was the case in 2006 anyway

[cooperlola]

Yes, be discreet and you should be OK. A small tent pitched after dark will not usually be policed but if you take up a couple of spaces with a huge elaborate camp it won't be long before somebody spots you! Before the days when we bought camping tickets, we used to just kip next to the car in bivvie bags and that was fine.

[willdew]

And no one would bother you if you didn't put the tent up until midnight on the Sat until the Sunday morning. However, I'd wander into a proper camp site on foot and just set up. Nobody would ever stop you. They'd all just assume you're with one of the parties already there and that one of the cars near you with a permit in the window was yours.

We always turned up on the Thursday without any tickets at all, and have always managed to pay for somewhere to camp. There's a big fuss made about it being impossible etc etc. It isn't.

[spdpug98]

cooperlola said:

Yes, be discreet and you should be OK. A small tent pitched after dark will not usually be policed but if you take up a couple of spaces with a huge elaborate camp it won't be long before somebody spots you! Before the days when we bought camping tickets, we used to just kip next to the car in bivvie bags and that was fine.

This is what we had to do last year, we usually go on a coach which parks at the expo centre and set up a tent outside the coach but last year they where stopping everybody from setting up tents, including the cars in the car park.....but when we got back at 1.00 in the morning all the security had gone and about 100 tents had been put up including ours

Edited by spdpug98 on Friday 5th January 16:40

[littlegearl]

shouldn't be a problem, have had no problem parking near the dunlop bridge in the little industrial estate in the past so you could just leave your car there and go get a ticket on the gate, they're like 50 euro's aren't they?