Open Day

Saturday. And I returned to France yesterday just in time for the open day at work. It's a family day, a chance to introduce your loved ones to where you spend much of your time, and in the words of the company, your passion.

Although I had no guests, I decided to go anyway. I had never been shown round the facility so it was a chance to see what there was going on in locations I had never had cause to visit.

And it was a cold blustery day.

So I arrived rather late to find I was one of the first. All on your own? he asked at the gate. Yes. The rest are in England.

I expected a lot of activity, fairground style, from the frequent emails banning cars from all the car parks. True, every park was used, but not to the full. It was clearly for the kids, but there were not many kids there yet. A large padded climbing frame was near the entrance, a food tent, then a car demo, and model racing cars. And round the corner a driving simulator, pictures below.

Open to all ages. When I was there there were so few people there was a spare seat and no-one but me to use it. So I sat down. Now you can see from the chair in the top photo that it is well constructed. It vibrates with the terrain, which was dirt track. The screen said "go" so I did. It wasn't easy to follow the guide line down the route. Just before the bridge I came off the track and struggled back to cross the finish line at the end of the bridge. It said I was 8th. Probably that was how many had used it so far! Some time later I saw a young boy finishing. He too came off the track before the bridge. He drove over the line to finish 3rd. He probably practiced a lot.

Here are some more photos from the day.

Inside I could find out about the business. It was interesting to me, but I shall spare you the details. I avoided the face painting and magic man, although the caricature artist was interesting. Here is an image of me taken by a specialist department resulting in adult face painting and caricature all in one.

Evangeline says it does not look like me, but I assure you it is. The temperature scale is on the right. Comments such as "hot head" will not be published.

Some things the French do particularly well. Catering is a speciality and I rather think they take some pride in it. Being early I could snap this 'still life' before it was spoilt. The champagne in the photo is mine, placed there to add to the style for the snap.

It rained a little.

Everyone settled into the food tent for a while. Which was fine.

Delicious in fact.