Angouleme 2023 Circuit Des Remparts
Discussion
Mk2Jag said:
Also attending this for the first time in 2024.
Four of us will be coming down in an MGC and an MG BGT V8. Any recommendations for things to do on the Saturday- nearby places to visit for example and of course, any good bar/ restaurant recommendations in Angouleme?
A place to visit - Brantome. A beautiful village about 45 mins away, a fantastic drive through the forests of the National Park. Empty sweeping roads, just fabulous. There’s a few gorgeous restaurants there, all worth a visit. If you time it right, you can join in with the car rally that tours around Angouleme on their way back. More luck than judgement with the timing though. Four of us will be coming down in an MGC and an MG BGT V8. Any recommendations for things to do on the Saturday- nearby places to visit for example and of course, any good bar/ restaurant recommendations in Angouleme?
A bar in Angouleme - Café Chaud. Great little place, superb atmosphere, lovely wines and charcuterie if you fancy something to nibble on.
Restaurants - Le Lion Rouge is lovely, not expensive but great food and a lovely place to eat.
Also Little Comptior is nice, simple food but well cooked and great atmosphere. Gets very busy and even with a reservation…..nothing is guaranteed…!
You’ll love the weekend, it’s a fab place.
MrVert said:
Mk2Jag said:
Also attending this for the first time in 2024.
Four of us will be coming down in an MGC and an MG BGT V8. Any recommendations for things to do on the Saturday- nearby places to visit for example and of course, any good bar/ restaurant recommendations in Angouleme?
A place to visit - Brantome. A beautiful village about 45 mins away, a fantastic drive through the forests of the National Park. Empty sweeping roads, just fabulous. There’s a few gorgeous restaurants there, all worth a visit. If you time it right, you can join in with the car rally that tours around Angouleme on their way back. More luck than judgement with the timing though. Four of us will be coming down in an MGC and an MG BGT V8. Any recommendations for things to do on the Saturday- nearby places to visit for example and of course, any good bar/ restaurant recommendations in Angouleme?
A bar in Angouleme - Café Chaud. Great little place, superb atmosphere, lovely wines and charcuterie if you fancy something to nibble on.
Restaurants - Le Lion Rouge is lovely, not expensive but great food and a lovely place to eat.
Also Little Comptior is nice, simple food but well cooked and great atmosphere. Gets very busy and even with a reservation…..nothing is guaranteed…!
You’ll love the weekend, it’s a fab place.
The ticket office for Circuit Des Remparts 2024 is now open.
https://www.circuitdesremparts.com/courses/billett...
There are 5 stands (tribunes) does anyone have a recommendation for their preferred spot to watch the racing ?
https://www.circuitdesremparts.com/courses/billett...
There are 5 stands (tribunes) does anyone have a recommendation for their preferred spot to watch the racing ?
loughran said:
The ticket office for Circuit Des Remparts 2024 is now open.
https://www.circuitdesremparts.com/courses/billett...
There are 5 stands (tribunes) does anyone have a recommendation for their preferred spot to watch the racing ?
Airbnb with a balcony overlooking the circuit https://www.circuitdesremparts.com/courses/billett...
There are 5 stands (tribunes) does anyone have a recommendation for their preferred spot to watch the racing ?
biggles330d said:
I'm looking to go to the 2024 race as not been before. We are looking at going down on Thursday to have all day friday and saturday and head back sunday lunchtime of the ferry. What might we miss on the Sunday? I'm not too clear on whether it's the day when most things are happening?
Actually, you’re right to be confused! Everyone is….even when there. Below is just my experience. This is just my opinion and I realise it doesn’t necessarily tally with other’s:
After wanting to go for possibly nearly the last 10 years and after investing a significant amount of time, money and effort to go (I ended up driving from northern Germany, through Luxembourg and the whole of the middle of France to get there, I was ultimately left feeling hugely disappointed by the whole experience.
It was poorly organised and the content was (unless you’re a die-hard pre-war car enthusiast) extremely disappointing.
The ‘concours’ on the Friday night was (I guess) supposed to be a bit informal and a laugh….except it was really that funny. Add to that for an audience of circa 2000-3000 people, my son and I estimated, not a single toilet! And it’s in the middle of the town…so you can’t just have a piss up a tree!
Saturday is the day where they all drive around the the neighbouring countryside. Only trouble is, they change the route every year…..and don’t publish it probably. We stood most of the afternoon in a nearby village with the local people and watched a dribble of not very interesting stuff (the sort of stuff you might see at your local village ‘classic car’ meet’) only for someone to then say they changed the route and that most of the cars had been turning off just before entering that village. But that hadn’t been publicised at all.
Sunday is the main racing day. Unless you have tickets for one of the seated Grandstands (which we didn’t) you will see virtually nothing! But, you’ll still pay a hefty price (can’t remember how much) for the privilege of “seeing virtually nothing”.
There is also virtually no actual ‘racing’. In the whole afternoon there might have been literally 2-3 overtakes. The rest is just mostly a procession of pre-war single seat racing cars. I’m sure they’re historically important and no doubt some are priceless. I know it’s probably just me but even at 60 years old those things just all look the same to me!
Again, I can give a figure for the number of spectators but we’re in the 10s of thousands (maybe 20?). I don’t won’t to appear “potty obsessed” but…..we found only one toilet all afternoon!
I’m glad I finally got it ticked off the list but afterwards with all the cost of getting there, the tickets, then back to Lincolnshire, the cost of accommodation (we hired a gite place outside of Angouleme for 5 days) etc. it really just wasn’t worth it, IMHO.
If you’re going to be leaving on the Sunday lunchtime, then I would seriously say that it’s barely worth going at all.
Compared with something like the Le Mans Classic this just doesn’t even come close!
(Tip for anyone going: Parking is easy and cheap and safe in the multi-level car park in the centre of Angouleme. However, on the Sunday you’ll need to park REALLY early there. If you don’t you struggle to park and have to walk a long way to get to the event)
Edited by derin100 on Tuesday 12th December 20:10
blueg33 said:
loughran said:
The ticket office for Circuit Des Remparts 2024 is now open.
https://www.circuitdesremparts.com/courses/billett...
There are 5 stands (tribunes) does anyone have a recommendation for their preferred spot to watch the racing ?
Airbnb with a balcony overlooking the circuit https://www.circuitdesremparts.com/courses/billett...
There are 5 stands (tribunes) does anyone have a recommendation for their preferred spot to watch the racing ?
I went this year with my son and we didn’t have stand tickets. In this case you’re almost wasting your time and money…as we found out!
It’s definitely not like the Le Mans Classic, that’s possibly the largest Classic race weekend in Europe & it’s blooming fantastic! The best race weekend in the calendar. It’s vast, incredibly broad in variety of cars and there’s loads to see and do. Agree, that’s on a different level.
Angouleme is definitely more low key. We think of it as a fab weekend away with friends, a great drive down and back, superb roads around Angouleme to explore, loads of nice restaurants and bars and a lovely atmosphere.
Yes, you probably do need a grandstand if you want a decent view, but even decent seats are only €50 (that’s gone up this year).
As for the racing, we’ve seen some of the best races in our memory at Angouleme, including an incredible 30 minute tussle between a 60’s 911 and a Mk 1 Escort. The entire crowd were ‘ooh & arring’ every time they overtook each other and it was a proper ding dong!
They’re not all like that, but the drivers are properly committed from what we’ve seen.
We’ve been 5 times, so it can’t be that bad
Angouleme is definitely more low key. We think of it as a fab weekend away with friends, a great drive down and back, superb roads around Angouleme to explore, loads of nice restaurants and bars and a lovely atmosphere.
Yes, you probably do need a grandstand if you want a decent view, but even decent seats are only €50 (that’s gone up this year).
As for the racing, we’ve seen some of the best races in our memory at Angouleme, including an incredible 30 minute tussle between a 60’s 911 and a Mk 1 Escort. The entire crowd were ‘ooh & arring’ every time they overtook each other and it was a proper ding dong!
They’re not all like that, but the drivers are properly committed from what we’ve seen.
We’ve been 5 times, so it can’t be that bad
Having been this year ('23) I concur with a lot of what Derin100 says, and would add that, as well as being very few loos, there is virtually nowhere comfortable to sit down within the circuit (only walls, grassy banks etc - not so good at my age!) and very little in the way of catering outlets.
Viewing is quite restricted, in most places you can only see a very short section of the circuit but you are very close to the track albeit behind a fence as the pictures above show.
Having said that I did enjoy some of the races and that Escort was a hoot in what I remember was the last race. The town is great too, with lots of displays, stalls etc etc
Would I go again? Maybe, but not for racing in the main just for the atmosphere and craic.
Viewing is quite restricted, in most places you can only see a very short section of the circuit but you are very close to the track albeit behind a fence as the pictures above show.
Having said that I did enjoy some of the races and that Escort was a hoot in what I remember was the last race. The town is great too, with lots of displays, stalls etc etc
Would I go again? Maybe, but not for racing in the main just for the atmosphere and craic.
Edited by timbo999 on Tuesday 12th December 22:38
timbo999 said:
Having been this year ('23) I concur with a lot of what Derin100 says, and would add that, as well as being very few loos, there is virtually nowhere comfortable to sit down within the circuit (only walls, grassy banks etc - not so good at my age!) and very little in the way of catering outlets.
Viewing is quite restricted, in most places you can only see a very short section of the circuit but you are very close to the track albeit behind a fence as the pictures above show.
Having said that I did enjoy some of the races and that Escort was a hoot in what I remember was the last race. The town is great too, with lots of displays, stalls etc etc
Would I go again? Maybe, but not for racing in the main just for the atmosphere and craic.
Thanks Timbo999 and Deri, I've added an extra night so we're now going for the full day sunday too. Sounds like it should be seen as a motorsport themed jolly to a nice bit of France rather than being entirely about the event. A mate and I went to the Pau GP a couple of years ago and while that was fun it sounds similar - relatively small scale city event and just great to hang around at rather than an LMC alternative. Viewing is quite restricted, in most places you can only see a very short section of the circuit but you are very close to the track albeit behind a fence as the pictures above show.
Having said that I did enjoy some of the races and that Escort was a hoot in what I remember was the last race. The town is great too, with lots of displays, stalls etc etc
Would I go again? Maybe, but not for racing in the main just for the atmosphere and craic.
Edited by timbo999 on Tuesday 12th December 22:38
We'll be going down in the Alpine from Scotland, so it'll get some proper 'GT legs' under it, which its a fab car for.
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