The Original 1948 2CV (375cc / 9hp)

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2CV Prototypes in the Museum

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Fourgonnette to France

It's been a busy few months for us & we were really looking forward to getting away on our holidays. Over the past few weeks we got our little orange Citroen van fettled and packed ready to attend the 2CV world meeting in Salbris, France http://www.2cvfrance2011.fr/index.php?lang=en.

After a pleasant & busy weekend round on the Macc & Upper Peak Forest over the 22nd to 24th we got back to base & did all our last minute jobs and packing. When the alarm went off at 4am on Monday morning we didn't want to get up. By 5.30 we were finally on the road and bimbling our way south. We had a fairly good run down with just the usual queues around Walsall & then again on the M25. At Dover we met up with our friends Dan & Emy in their red 2cv and made our way onto the ferry. We grabbed lunch and caught up with each others gossip on the journey over the Channel.

Once off the ferry we headed south for Amiens, arriving about 7pm at a welcome meeting organised by the local 2CV club, we got a very friendly welcome from the organisers with free camping at the local football ground. Here we met up with our other friends Young Andrew & Keith in the blue 2CV (Topple Junior) and David, Sarah & Nat in the brown VW Type 25 Camper. We cracked open the beers & Dan cooked us a lovely communal meal. We then sat around chatting & catching up until we couldn't keep our eyes open.

On Tuesday morning we de-camped and set off towards Salbris in a 4 car convoy, via the scenic route provided to us by our hosts. The route took us in a big arc around Paris, through some pretty villages and rolling countryside with lots of combine harvesters sweeping the fields. We found a great spot for a picnic lunch on the banks of the River Seine, we cannot keep away from the waterways for long and even got to see a big loaded barge heading towards Paris.

We made fairly leisurely progress south, finally arriving at the meeting site, Salbris at 7pm. We thought by now the queues should have died down as the meeting had been open since 10am. How wrong we were, we had pre-booked and paid for the meeting which meant that we would get priority entry. This entailed getting corralled into a holding field with a few thousand other 2CV's and being kept waiting there for 4 hours. By 11 O'clock we had enough & pitched our tents where we were & got out more beer & snacks.

This morning we finally got into the meeting, it was even more chaotic than we thought, the first place we set up camp, an irate Frenchman told us we were forbidden to camp there (there's now 100's of people camped there!). Anyway we finally found a reasonable spot to set up camp and made ourselves at home.

This afternoon we've wandered round the site, had a look around the excellent 2CV Museum, the old car display and the trade stands, constantly bumping into friends and acquaintances that invariably we hadn't seen for ages, so had lots of news to catch up on. By mid afternoon we had migrated to the bar and spent a very laid back afternoon drinking Jupilier and hanging out with friends. This evening we've taken it easy chilling out back at the campsite with another lovely meal of pasta and tomato sauce cooked by Dan & Keith. None of us had the energy to walk back to the bar and main stage (20 mins walk) so we've just sat about nattering. Despite the chaotic organisation upon our arrival the meeting does have a great buzz and we've really enjoyed a chilled out day with all 2CV friends.

I'll try and post a few more photos through the meeting.

Bon nuit!
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