It’s hard to describe how HUGE Le Mans 24 hours is. The race itself over the course of a day is exciting enough. There were some highs – Toyota’s win in a car driven by Fernando Alonso and other F1 luminaries. Dr McDreamy, for Grey’s Anatomy fans, or Patrick Dempsey in real life as a team owner, gaining a win in their class. Local lad and former F1 driver, Sebastian Bordais and team placing third in their class. Lots to cheer. Sadly, Jensen Button’s team’s car didn’t make the distance but should still be classified. Walking around such a famous track during its premier event is always something special. Being able to see directly opposite the tracks into the pit lane and watch the crews work tirelessly on cars, dealing with pit stops every 11 or so laps (about every 40 minutes) over 24 hours is amazing. Many teams do exercises like jumping jacks every so often to keep awake and sharp. The camera crews often join in.

Le Mans is a great town. It clearly hosts the Le Man 24 hours really well; during race week, there are things going on the track every day from Wednesday before the race onwards. Before that, scrutineering takes place in the centre of Le Mans on a Monday, and on Friday, the drivers’ parade comes to town. Thousands of locals and visitors come out to play and cheer the drivers. It reminded me a lot of the caravan at the Tour de France – lots of sponsors chucking out free trinkets (I have two squishy bracelets and some inflatable clapping things to show for it) and the teams themselves come out to cheer the crowd as much as they cheer them. The big difference to the Tour de France caravan is the teams are in vintage or supercars and the motors on display are worth a couple of hours gasping time alone.

In terms of race day itself, over 250,000 spectators were at the track – easily the biggest event I’ve attended. The cars are amazing, as are their teams. The whole track and trackside are a mass of catering, fairgrounds, a live stage with big musical acts – a huge celebration of motor sport. I lasted from 3 pm – 1 am on race day, came back to the gite for a kip and was back on the track around 10 am. J is an absolute trooper and stayed trackside for all 24 hours. It is now 5.40 pm local time and he is in bed.

For a world-class and world-famous event, it is also quite accessible – a week-long general access ticket is 82 euros, so if you want to take in everything at the track each day, it’s 11-ish euros per day. There are daily tickets available on the gates, too. A lot of locals just pitch up on the day they are interested in and pay for entry for one day as well – it is clearly a local tradition to go with the family, like an annual fun fair. There were huge numbers of motor sport fans; loads of people go camping around the track and turn it in to a holiday, with the added bonus that some of the camping spots have views over the track.

Suffice to say, I’ve had a lovely week here. There was more than a moment of reflection on Thursday, knowing that it was the funeral back in England of one of our dear friends; his family and our friends are constantly in my thoughts at the moment and have my heart.

Tomorrow to Paris and onwards on this adventure.