.fr - magny cours f1 weekend pics report 2003 french gp
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the pics
A Loire valley vineyard (as if we hadn't drunk enough wine!)
Friday's weather clouds our view
Hello boys!
Race Merchandise stalls in a quiet French village
Where did all the cars go?
Madame and family, taking a well-deserved rest from the Anglais
See the Magny-Cours Circuit Grand Prix Cities Travel Guide
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the report
by Dee Edwards, UK
I sometimes feel organising a Grand Prix trip for our F1 group is like a military operation; sadly in speed terms not an SAS one. The first major battle is deciding the race, especially when group members are boycotting anything from America to Ryan Air flights. This year, after much wrangling and a person substitution, we chose France.
Magny-Cours is in Burgundy, fine French countryside; being British we are more familiar with this than our own countryside. So, we were amazed that we could not find any accommodation, despite trying to book six months in advance. As a couple of us simply don't 'do' camping, the plan was to hire a gite. To say we got in touch with 50 gite owners within a 50km radius of the circuit is not an exaggeration - the gites had all been booked a year in advance. We tried the few hotels in the area, but they had been booked by the teams and the travel agents. Luckily a phone call to Service Loisirs Accueil set us up in chambre d'hotes (B&B) at an F1 price of 80EUR a night per room.
We drove from London as Nevers is only 5 hours drive from Calais, with a 'five day' Eurotunnel ticket costing £150, and petrol and tolls totalling £130. Coming back on the Monday, we had plenty of time to take a detour via a few vineyards in the Loire valley and stocked up with wine from Pouilly sur Loire, which is not well known in the UK.
We could not find St Parize le Chatel on the map and were amazed to see it on the circuit map - in fact our house was closer than some of the parking areas! A nice welcome by Madame Lonchambon, who was relieved to find her 'Anglais' spoke French. She does not actually run a chambre d'hotes but opens her doors for the Formula One Grand Prix. Madame proved to be an excellent host, taking such good care of us we felt like teenagers. On Friday, the small village changed beyond recognition as it was full of fans, stalls, and most of the houses were offering their gardens for camping with prices around 20EUR a night. Madame even had an ice cream stall in her driveway!
We had chosen Tribune S for our grandstand race tickets, bought direct from the circuit official website to avoid travel agent 'handling fees' and they were excellent value for 215EUR/£160. Tribune S is on the last chicane with an incident-prone view; we could also
see part of the start/finish straight and with binoculars, straight into the pits. We kept track of what else was going on in the race via the large screen
opposite. Friday was a day to remember with rain in the morning followed by a fast-drying track the drying conditions resulting in a 1-2 finish the Minardis - for a day, Jos really was the boss and our stand went crazy for Justin Wilson.
A car is essential for getting around Magny Cours although the traffic was ridiculous around racing times. Even if you are lucky enough to stay as close to the circuit as we did, there are only a couple of bars and cafes in St Parize le Chatel and you will not get much more than steak frites and beer for £10-20. There are some good restaurants in Nevers but with so many fans staying there, it is hard to get a parking space. Drive round the outlying villages for a good meal, there is a very good restaurant at Le Pont Neuf in Le Veurdre but teams stay in the hotel, so telephone in advance to see if you can reserve a table. Madame recommended a restaurant called La Vigne, in St Pierre Le Moutier where we had the type of excellent meal which this part of France is well known for - we had a four course meal and had plenty of their 'home-grown' wine for £35 each. Again, teams stay here so reservations essential. On the Sunday evening, many fans and teams were stuck on traffic on the way back to Paris, we were dining at La Vigne, enjoying our surroundings.
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