Page 24 - Ayse's Le Mans Story 2022

Le Mans 2022 - Ayse's Story

Page 24 - Monday 13th June - And Back Home...

Although our ferry wasn't due to sail until 4.30 pm, James and I had both received texts from Brittany the day before telling us that it was very busy and that they would be starting to load at 1 pm. This was far from unusual as I think we had the same message in 2019. This particular sailing is always absolutely full. Most of us had done the best part of our packing by the time we began to communicate on the group chat from about 7.30 am. We were aiming to meet up at Ouistreham for lunch at our usual restaurant (with Sean) at 1 pm. Before that we agreed with Tony and Tim that they would deal with the flowers for Flo and Jose while we would deal with the chocolates.

We headed up to Auchan at 9 am and it was only at that point that we discovered (via a message on the group chat) that James F had already departed for the coast.

Having done our shopping and made the subsequent presentation to Monsieur and Madame, it was time to finish loading up the car and hit the road.

The journey was straight forward enough and we arrived in Ouistreham and secured a table in Le Goeland where omelette and frites was the order of the day for me. Those who know me will be aware that I no longer drink any alcohol (not good for the migraines) and the last alcohol I had consumed was cider in the restaurant in 2019, but this year, I even passed on that one glass....

The meal consumed it was time to hit the ferry queue(s). The first was negotiated pretty quickly and then it was into the lines on the quay with the ferry beside us. And there I waited...and waited....and waited. Everyone else got on but I was still there. According to the timing on our Whatsapp messages I got to the second queue at about 2.30 pm. I finally got onto the boat at 5.05 pm.... So much for 'Le Mans Royalty'.....

It was another of those almost entirely uninspiring ferry journeys which we experience on the way back from Le Mans. I'm pretty sure that I ate a meal of some kind on board which was clearly highly memorable as I have no recollection of it! James F briefly joined us from his cabin but went outside to speak with Tony so there was no real opportunity to chat with him before I disembarked.
To cap it all, those responsible for Hampshire's roads had decided that tonight was the night to use up their entire supply of traffic cones by diverting all traffic off of the M27 so after a significant detour (followed by another closer to home), I finally arrived home around midnight. My last photograph of this year's trip is of my passport after a machine wash, having left it in my bodywarmer!

Aysedasi's Le Mans