More than 24h in Le Mans! (part 1)

Last night I arrived back from Le Mans where I spent the weekend and it was brilliant! :) Weird as it sounds it was kind of planned but also kind of spontaneous (I fully realise that this is a contradiction in terms)...I'll explain, in January I received a letter from Sarah, one of my friends from university saying she had to go to a conference in Le Mans at the end of February and did I fancy a weekend up there to see her/catch-up, so I agreed (hence the kind of planned bit. The spontaneity was that it ended up depending on whether I got paid in time which fortunately I did when I checked my account at midnight last Wednesday night, a rather excitable phone call to Sarah followed, and then I hurriedly booked train tickets/accommodation given that I had to be up at 7 and by the time I had finished sorting it all out extremely last minute it was half one, so didnt get that much sleep which isnt good when travelling.

Anyway, now that I have explained all that I can get on with writing about the weekend itself...this could be quite a long post, haha! :)

Arrived in Le Mans late Thursday afternoon after having taken three trains (one of which I'd have missed if it wasn't for the fact it was running late) and travelling for 9 hours. Had very little idea as to where my hostel actually was, although I knew from having rang while I was in Nantes that I had to take the tram to République...having said that, my first thought was that I seriously didn't remember there being a tram when I was there four years ago! Ah well, anyway, following the instructions I managed to get to République, but then completely forgot the directions they had given me from there, so had to make another phone call and then not long after had checked in, got my room (which I had to myself even though there were two beds!). After having a look round the hostel to find my bearings I ventured back out into Le Mans given that I was only 10-15 minutes walk from the centre and it was still light. Wasn't long before I considered bed given that I was so tired from not that much sleep the previous night and a long time travelling, plus I wanted to get up to re-trace my steps around Le Mans on Friday morning! As a rule I refuse to lie-in when I visit somewhere, I don't see the point in paying to be somewhere if you're just going to spend the majority of the time you're there in bed! Anyway, got into bed and was just drifting off to sleep when I got a text from one of my French friends saying she was around and wanted to meet up! Was so excited given that the last time we saw each other was when we were on tour 4 years ago (will explain this in more detail further on...), so a good end to a tiring day!

Friday, got up, albeit not at my alarm (snatched another hour's sleep, I needed it!). Was a gorgeous day, so in order to be able to retrace my steps from my last visit I made my way to the tourist office on foot to pick up some info and a map (this seems to have become a habit of mine when I go places...) and thus my trip down memory lane began! It didn't take long before I came across something familiar...the shopping centre opposite the tourist office I remembered visiting during my last visit, so I knew everything else had to be close by. I continued down the side streets by the centre and then found the Le Mans 24 Statuette, which again I remembered...well given that the 24 hour race is one of the things Le Mans is famous for, if not the most famous thing, it would be quite difficult to forget about it.




There were also plaques of the hand and foot prints of previous winners of the race



I had a list of places I wanted to revisit given that when I was on tour and we did a concert in Le Mans in 2005 I left my camera at home...genius! When I say on tour, I don't mean singing or dancing or whatever, I doubt anyone would come if that was the case. Every two years, the orchestras of Bolton and it's two twin towns, Le Mans (France) and Paderborn (Germany) unite for two weeks and tour the three towns performing a concert in each and I had the opportunity to be part of the International Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (or IYP for short) where I played the viola in 2005, hence my previous visit to Le Mans. Given that we had to rehearse and prepare for our concert it would be fair to say that I didnt get to appreciate the town that much when I was there in 2005, it was literally a whistle-stop tour of the town as we only had two days before we had to leave and travel to Paderborn to perform.

My first port-of-call I intended to be the Cathedral, which I initially found quite difficult to find. That said, I thought I had found it until I looked at the map and realised that what I had found was the Eglise de la Visitation in the Old Town- I admit it did take me a while to realise that it wasn't actually the Cathedral...



Given that I was already in the Old Town I decided to explore as not only am I majorly interested in History, I also thought that the place had a lot of character. I found a Tudor-style (I have forgotten the techincal term, so that'll do :P) house that I loved. Just to show you how contrary a person I actually am, I would either have as my ideal house/home an old house with a lot of history or a brand new chic apartment...from one extreme to the other...

I then decided to go in search of the place where we performed our concert in Le Mans, the Palais de Congres as I saw some signs for it, so knew I must be nearby, again, wasn't as easy as I thought but soon managed it. I do actually miss being on stage, there was something about concerts, the adrenaline and the buzz you get from performing that I loved. If time allowed I'm sure I'd still play now, that and if the musicians at uni weren't as snobby as they are...fond memories nontheless though and I do still play when I get chance :)



Whilst I was looking for the Palais de Congres I got a reply to a message I had sent to one of my penfriends the night before who is from Le Mans (well, obviously) saying that she was available and wanted to meet up a few hours later, which was great. We have been penfriends for around five years though never met, so was quite excited at the prospect I have to say!