Chris Hall's excellent Rouen adventure page 4

Continuing toward Gresil however, with the armco ending where the new link begins, you go under the autoroute bridge and immediately after is an angled bank on the right (This was a couple of feet high in 1999, but by the following year was of mountainous proportions ). Behind this can be found what remains of what was the fastest corner on the track. The road curves through the woods, but was becoming overgrown and covered in lichen. It was still possible to see the road markings on the surface and also the markings before the bank where a temporary chicane was put in before the 1971 F2 race. The exit of Gresil is blocked by a gate since the following straight now forms part of the main autoroute into Rouen city centre.

Ignoring this straight, what was the cobbled corner at Scierie is no longer there. Instead an overhead junction has been built on the site to connect to the straight leading to Paradis. The television mast is still there on the left, but the road itself seems to have been lowered, although following the same route past the village of Les Essarts. Paradis has gone forever, the road curving gently to the right over a bridge above the Le Havre - Paris autoroute (2003 postscript - There is now a roundabout before the bridge) and then leading into the start-finish straight, the 1950 and 1972 links joining from the right immediately after the bridge. Basically from here it is a run straight back to the pit area, although I did note the point at which Jackie Oliver stuffed his Lotus during practice for the 1968 Grand Prix and where Ron Flockhart rolled his BRM in 1960 or so.

We spent about 3 hours at the track and the impression that I got was that somebody wants to erase all pointers to its former glories. It's just a matter of time before the rest of the armco is ripped up and Gresil reforested, so I would urge anybody wishing to visit not to delay. Postscript: Having visited on four subsequent occasions, each time I clear a square metre or two of lichen and moss from the road surface at Gresil in a singular attempt to hold back nature!!

Eventually we made our way back into the city for a look around, including the site where Joan of Arc met her fate and then returned to Neufchatel, where I got completely ratted off my face and toasted both the Circuit Des Essarts and those who accepted her challenge.

After spending the following night near Calais, we returned to the UK on the Sunday and I started planning the next trip, which would be to Spa, Chimay and Mettet. Postscript: We subsequently made it to all three and have also since visited Reims, Cadours, Comminges, Le Mans, Montjuich Park and Floreffe.

Many thanks to Chris Hall for unselfishly sharing his trip with us. Thanks also to Pete Allam, who helped assemble the material.
Cheers mates! - Johnny