Le Mans quieter this year?

[gary11]

I have been for many years and as always had a great time,however I noticed on the ferry out and back it was definately less busy,on the way down I didnt see so many cars plus found it easy on the Fri eve drivers parade to walk into any of the restaurants around the square and get a table for six,many times we have have been unable to eat any where other than the dreaded mcds.
Just a sign of the times I guess I also found mulsanne better behaved Ive att a picc of 10 or so Gendarmes on bikes appearing en masse after the race!And a couple at the square on one of the only sunny periods of the weekend!Luckily the rain didnt ruin much as seemed to miss the key moments apart from packing up 7am Monday morning that is great time though!
ed sorry for quality only iphone picture

Edited by gary11 on Wednesday 16th June 09:55

Edited by gary11 on Wednesday 16th June 09:59

Edited by gary11 on Wednesday 16th June 10:03

Edited by gary11 on Wednesday 16th June 10:07

[gary11]

Yes I heard the announcement ref the circuit attendance but felt people perhaps out of the circuit were not eating out or spending as much perhaps staying en site so to speak!
Be interesting to see the UK Ferry figures for the weekend.
G

[Nick M]

Houx seemed a bit quiter, with quite a few empty pitches.

And the journeys there and back seemed to be a little quieter than usual, but that may have been down to the general awareness of plod and his speed traps, so people were being sensible.

Looking forward to seeing the contrast at the Classic next month !

[Gibo993]

We thought is was very quiet at the normal busy spots Mulsanne on Friday day and Arnage Friday afternoon eve, no bad behaviour.
But at the start of the race everyone seemed to appear and it seemed very busy.

[gary11]

I agree cant wait for the classic taking the wife and kids!
sunny and chav free.... hopefully!

[Dan XJR]

We thought it was quieter this year apart from the chavs camping next to us.

[Rude-boy]

It seemed very quite numbers wise this year.

Houx was only about 3/4 full, even on the saturday night and we were able to walk straight from camp to our start viewing spot at 2 over the Dunlop bridge without even the slightest bit of crowding - previously we have been shoulder to shoulder at the same time.

I am a little sceptical of the ACO numbers as there really didn't seem anything like previous years numbers, but perhaps people were just more spread out around the track than before.

[Nick M]

Rude-boy said:

I am a little sceptical of the ACO numbers as there really didn't seem anything like previous years numbers, but perhaps people were just more spread out around the track than before.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics...

Assuming it's the number of general entry tickets sold, there did seem to be a lot of 'day' visitors there for qualifying and the Saturday afternoon, but oddly the Sunday around the time of the finish didn't seem like quite such a bun-fight to be able to move around. Maybe because certain cars had expired by then.

[Gixer]

Probably a higher number of French due to the pugs but less Brits. The sites didn't look as full and the roads, services etc were way quieter than previous years

[Nick M]

Dan XJR said:

We thought it was quieter this year apart from the chavs camping next to us.

We had a group near us with a rather noisy stereo system. It went a bit quiet for them at one point though.... Poor bloke seemed a bit confused as to how his plug could have just fallen out of the socket and was remonstrating with our neighbours across the way about it, while we looked as innocent as could be.

Until the chaps across the way grassed us up the minute they found out he had a TV and would be showing the football on Saturday night Hats off to them for their impressive about-turn

[Graham]

Nick M said:

Until the chaps across the way grassed us up the minute they found out he had a TV and would be showing the football on Saturday night Hats off to them for their impressive about-turn

that reminds me of about 8 years ago at Expo

my generator wasnt the quietist( ok it was blinkingloud)

and one evening the neighbours moaned about the noise, till we said we had a fridge with cold beer, and satelite TV with porn... they all stopped complaining then, and actually moaned when we turned it all off at 3am

[5potTurbo]

Quieter this year? NO! FAR from it!
I was camped near Drinking for Holland and The Brethren on Bleu Nord, and was soooo pleased to get home on Monday for some sleep.

[gary11]

5potTurbo said:

Quieter this year? NO! FAR from it!
I was camped near Drinking for Holland and The Brethren on Bleu Nord, and was soooo pleased to get home on Monday for some sleep.

Meaning less people compared to previous years (in the normal busy areas) not volume and alchohol consumption!

[5potTurbo]

I know .... and the nunber above already show it wasn't (apart from 2008)
That many people spread across that huge area is difficult to gauge?

There were a surprising number of empty pitches on Bleu Nord though. Last year it was full.

[gt6]

tertre rouge was getting full on wednesday and totally full up by friday, every little space seemed to be taken, however the weather did damped down the late night parties this year. Noticed the reduction in large camper vans and less old classics, the fun fair also seemed very muted, when i got up to watch the race at 4.00 on sunday most of it was closed.

[tenfoot]

We were on Maison Blanche and had several pitches around us with no-one on. Definitely less people camping, and we didn't struggle to get near the track either.