[LM24] Le Mans 2023 - 10/11 June - Who Is Going? (Closed)

[RL17]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Glad you all had a fun time, makes me realise again what I am missing! It sounds like the journey there can be part of the fun. Really I must try it the experience one day, if I can find the will and time to do it.

Journey there and back is great part of the trip - possibly better even when going to the Classic. Caen ferry possibly best but it's good seeing cars on the drag down from Calais and stopping at services (but not filling up there).

Autoroute with toll tag pretty good - French repairs to excellent road surfaces by SE England standards are done over a km or so of road at time and roll repair gang up carriageway as they do it. UK likes to have maximum carnage for 2 or 3 years and delays possible until DEC 2025 signs!

Old roads north of Le Man and south to Hotel De France are great and their supermarkets pretty excellent too (especially away from Arnage) plus driving public bits of track including Indianapolis on Monday before departure.

Plus we don't pack light

[Aysedasi]

We had a great week. It was a shorter trip for me, missing scrutineering and test day this year but nevertheless it was a smashing trip. Great weather (only non-sunned on once), fantastic seats in T17, met Trevor the US marshal who actually travelled over to Mulsanne Corner just to meet me.... Thoroughly enjoyed spectating from the inside beyond the new Porsche bridge and down on the outside of Tertre Rouge at sun-up. Got out to Arnage on Wednesday and Mulsanne on Thursday completely avoiding the traffic - some of the time actually wondering if I was the only car on the road on the way there - and enjoyed the Friday celebrations. It was packed but to me it didn't feel any more busy than usual, other than seeing the monumental queues for eateries and shops, most of which I avoided. Great journey down and back with my 'bippy' thing working perfectly at the peages. The only dampener was how poor some of my photos turned out to be. But there's even a bright side to that as I've used it as a reason to splurge on another lens..... Super year with a compact group of four. Can't believe it's already two weeks since I was just getting through French border control on the way over. Seriously looking forward to 2024.

[Mike E]

Without parking tickets for Arnage/Mulsanne we managed to get in to Mulsanne for free on Wednesday night when we arrived and Arnage for free on Thursday for Hyperpole.
Then we watched about the last 4 hours of the race at Mulsanne, parking just outside the official area. Not bad in the end.

[dwh43scale]

A few years back our youngest left Glencoe by bus, got an Easy Jet flight from Glasgow to Paris, met his sibling (who had travelled to Paris by train) and they both caught the TGV to Le Mans. IIRC the cost wasn't silly. To be fair, we then met them and transported them around LM. He then reversed the journey back on the Monday. Planes, trains, automobiles, metro and buses !

[bella]

Originally Posted by Truckosaurus

Several in our group have used the trains in the past, either from Paris (having taken the Eurostar from London) or from CDG airport.

I all cases they'd arrange for their luggage and/or camping gear to be taken in cars by other people.

The tram from the station to circuit, and then either walk or get picked up by car, is easier than driving into town to collect them.

i did it by plane and tgv, paris one way nantes the other. managed to pack a tent, bedding, one of the smaller fold up chairs from decathlon, clothes covering all eventualities, washbag and other nonsense and a totally illegal amount of battery packs for my phone into one slightly bigger than cabin bag and a personal item. relied on one decent bit of circuit dining per day for food and a trip to carrefour for everything else. on the way back i ditched the tent. compression sacks are your friend.

generally your TGV is about €35 one way, and your flight about €70 one way including a wheelie bag. can be done for cheaper. wise man packs bag that’s just about viable hand luggage but with zero intention of taking it on board - ask if you can check it in at the desk before going through security. never had an issue on BA or easyjet, ryanair do sell an option like that anyway limited to 10kg but i’d never suggest flying ryanair anyway

you can get a tgv or ter to nantes from le mans (1hr18 and 1hr28 i think, so just pick what works), and the airport shuttle bus is 9€ one way. i much preferred it to dragging stuff across paris on the rer-metro change, and that cdg-montparnasse ticket was 11.80€ i think so it compares well. easyjet flights to both cdg from non-gatwick airports and nantes were very affordable right up until a few days before departure.

wouldn’t recommend the eurostar - if it goes tits up your options are very limited since you can’t get transferred to a flight so you need to have a slush fund/air miles bucket to cover (and yes, that’s speaking from experience!), it’s very expensive for zero convenience and it gets very disorganised around le mans time of year very quickly.

[S griffin]

I wouldn't know of many on here who have mentioned using the plane, but I guess it has it's advantages. I guess it does depend how much you bring. 70 Euros doesn't sound much. I suppose it also depends if you are willing to travel a bit more by train after the flight. Personally I'm not sure I would

The Eurostar is good, but it's not for everyone and you can't always rely on it. But I would be my preferred option

[RL17]

Surprised there’s not a few charter flights out early Saturday and back 6ish on Sunday direct to LM Arnage

[Aysedasi]

I've only done it by plane once, way back in 2005 when circumstances dictated a night in Paris at either end of the short trip. I hated it and wouldn't ever consider doing it again. Travelling light just isn't my thing. For the last three Le Mans I've travelled over solo in my car and I've managed to pretty much fill it with stuff just for me....

[rx555]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

But there's even a bright side to that as I've used it as a reason to splurge on another lens.....

Any excuse to get a new lens is worthy. I had a new one this year and am happy with it.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by RL17

Surprised there’s not a few charter flights out early Saturday and back 6ish on Sunday direct to LM Arnage

Agreed, I've oft thought this, but not sure what size of plane can be accommodated. Needs to be financially viable, of course.

From memory, I'm sure there was a company offering a 'weekender' in the distant past, using one of Love Air's jetstreams out of Biggin Hill.

Fly drive is easy enough, I've used LHR-CDG (plenty of flights but not particularly convenient), but Stansted to Tours was a really good option, used to regularly bump into Shorty and the media pack on that route, which was always entertaining.

Longer trips and far more clobber makes the ferry my only viable option these days though.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by rx555

Any excuse to get a new lens is worthy. I had a new one this year and am happy with it.

Got a real bargain, new lens heavily discounted as the box as two small dents.....

[RL17]

After getting the new 49 litre coolbox in the boot -just- everything else was carefully packed around it, including passenger footwell and quite a bit of seat for way out. Packed coolbox on situ about 6am on Wednesday before race.

A good 90 mins squeezing stuff back in for return with a partly dismantled barrel bbq in coolbox

Agree plane would be a pain personally

[Peter Mallett]

I know how you think. I bought a 40l fridge and carefully packed everything else around it. Fortunately I took my hatchback so it all fitted including the solar panel and battery. Must say though, my four person tent, which was much better than last year's two person effort, is really just a two room two person tent.

What lens did you buy Ayse?

[Aysedasi]

I replaced my elderly push/pull 100-400 L with a brand new series ll.

[Peter Mallett]

I'm still using my series 1. Good lens, if a little pushed in low light.

[S griffin]

It's amazing how some older cameras can still do the job, despite a few drawbacks. I mean nothing can beat modern cameras, but if the old one still does the job, why change?

[dwh43scale]

Originally Posted by RL17

Surprised there’s not a few charter flights out early Saturday and back 6ish on Sunday direct to LM Arnage

I did it out Sat / back Sun about 15 years ago with Airtrack, IIRC, out of Stansted. On my own that year due to school exams for offspring and just about made sense financially. Walked to and from the airport, had ACO 17 tribune ticket so had a brief kip in cafe overnight. Wasn't taking photos in those days ...

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by S griffin

It's amazing how some older cameras can still do the job, despite a few drawbacks. I mean nothing can beat modern cameras, but if the old one still does the job, why change?

Happy to sell you my old lens......

[JT240Z]

I would love to get a better understanding of what photography equipment is being used to make these amazing photos appear. Can some of you give a short list of what equipment you used to take these photos?

[Aysedasi]

Not much for me. My Canon 80D plus 100-400 L IS lens, plus an EFS 18-135 IS lens. I have a 2x extender as well for the big lens but find that really hard to get a crisp focus. The one thing that I've now finally realised is that I have to get over my dislike of monopods. I have a good one but avoid using it as I prefer to hand hold. But I've reached the point now of acceptance that I really need to use it. It's just a pain to carry around. For video, although my 80D does it OK with the 18-135, my iphone still takes better video particularly as I've now sorted out settings for better video at night. I also have a light monopod with an attachment for my phone (with a remote) to get up higher, although I didn't use it much. Every year I tell myself that I don't need 1000 photographs of the cars and to try and get some more 'arty' stuff, but from the spectator areas, it's not so easy. I need to hang around with Ker next year......

[Gerard C]

Originally Posted by JT240Z

I would love to get a better understanding of what photography equipment is being used to make these amazing photos appear.

+1:

[rx555]

I changed from the 80D to the Canon R7 this year and changed from the EF 75-300 Mk I to the Mk II. I had some focus issues sometimes with the old setup. The R7 is better in that regard as is this lens. Still can't quite pull the trigger on an L series lens.
I don't find I use more than about 200mm of the zoom most of the time as you aren't that far away from the track. My buddy carried his 600mm zoom around all weekend but barely used it.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by JT240Z

I would love to get a better understanding of what photography equipment is being used to make these amazing photos appear. Can some of you give a short list of what equipment you used to take these photos?

Originally Posted by Gerard C

+1:

Have a look here: https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=158012

[S griffin]

It's nice to know even with the advent of camera phones, that nothing matches actual cameras.

[Adam43]

For obvious reasons they don’t, but if they could it would be nice if camera phones did match actual cameras!