Le Shuttle

The Tour: Le Touquet, a chateau in Fontainebleau, Chateau de Chambord, Chaumont-sur-Loire

The queue for LeShuttle's Flexiplus lounge told its own story. McLarens, Ferraris, Lamborghinis — you name them, they were there, idling politely in line like schoolboys waiting for the tuck shop to open, their owners doing that studied nonchalance that only a man leaning against half a million pounds of carbon fibre can attempt.

To get to know a car, you really need to live with it on tour. So where better to take the McLaren 720S than to northern France along the amazing coastal roads, smooth as silk autoroutes and picturesque country lanes?

It came delivered in a box to the door, in a fetching but discreet Sarthe Grey, almost as if it did not want to be noticed. Paradoxically it showed off the lines magnificently, reflecting every hue and dapple of the morning light in the sublime bodywork. Unboxing such beauty as the McLaren 720S is like all your Christmases at once.