La Forgerie, The Ardennes

Advantages: Good overtaking areas and very spectacular.
Disadvantages: The bus-stop chicane has a stupid name!

...This circuit is simply awesome, it has everything you could possibly want at a Formula 1 venue. A quick dash down the short start-finish straight and your at the tight hairpin 'La Source' where there have been spectacular pile-ups in the past. A quick blast down the next straight and the most awesome corner in F1 looms up - 'Eau Rouge' which is taken flat out by those with the nerve! The cicuit is long with a smoth surface and good run-off areas, and the long straights with tight corners make it possible to overtake here, which is a refreshing change it todays traffic jam world of F1. The scenery is nice too, the Ardennes countryside also offers very changeable weather which often influences the outcome, especially when a certain 'Regenmeister' (Schumacher) is concerned. All the drivers like this circuit as it is a good test... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: small city
Disadvantages: small city; full of EU & corporate types

..."Nice" city; rather vanilla in flavour. Suggest that stay for no more than 2 days. Spend one day in the centre - grand place good but rather expensive - worth a visit in mid August to see the flower display in the Grand Place (every other year - next one 2002); get there the first couple of days otherwise the flowers start wilting. Mannequin Pis a complete waste of time. Other places of interest: Palais du Justice, Africa Museum (Tervuren), Nepoleon's last HQ (Waterloo). Foret de Soignes is good place for a walk in the summer - don't forget the blue bell forest. Much nicer places to visit around Belgium - Bruges, Ardennes, Liege, Namur....... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: A beautiful location, great hospitality
Disadvantages: Long circuit

...located in a small town called Francorchamps, which is in the beautiful region of Ardennes. The main route into Francorchamps is the E42. We hit Francorchamps at around 9 am and it was already starting to get busy. The roads were lined with stalls selling a variety of merchandise. Numerous campsites and car parks were in evidence with parking priced at 8 Euros and camping at 10 Euros. It seems that anyone with a spare piece of land was turning it into a car park, although they all had official signs and it seemed to be well regulated. We were fortunate to have a car pass and drove straight through, eventually parking about 100yds from the front gates! We headed off for the Paddock Club and the Jaguar hospitality tent to gain our bearings while the first practice session was starting, then went out to watch the end of it. Our seating... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful