French National Meeting at Salbris

Pictures

2CV French National Meeting - queue to get in.

We left home near London at 22:45 and drove to Folkestone to get the 01:28 Eurotunnel crossing which arrived at Calais at 03:03. 

We started the drive to Salbris approaching Paris on the A16/A26/A1. After an hour and a half we were very tired and stopped for a rest at an Aire off the A1.  Four hours later we were feeling a lot brighter and, after some breakfast in the cafeteria, continued on our way.

The peripherique was as terrifying as ever, but the directions from Via Michelin were brilliant and we found our way to the A10 [direction Orléans] without too much panic.

We stopped at a Le Clerc supermarket just to the south of Orléans to buy fresh food including some local cheese, which turned out to be absolutely wonderful.

 We arrived at Salbris, which is on the N20 about half-way between Orléans and Vierzon, at 15:30 and joined the others waiting in the holding area.  The field was filling up and, just after 16:00, we were allowed to go to the meeting site a kilometre further along the road to sign in – which was pretty quick. We followed Colin from the Pompey Puddleducks and found a good spot to camp, which was right next to the river.  We spent the rest of the evening getting organised, meeting people and having a bite to eat; this is when we discovered how good the cheese was.  We took a quick look round and had a chat with friends from the SAD Off-Piste Duck and Pompey Puddleducks before retiring early to catch up on our sleep.

The next morning (Thursday) we woke up late – 10:30 after a good rest. After breakfast we explored the camp site, which was very large so there was plenty of space for everyone.  At the Flea Market Matt and Rita of Matt’s Soft Tops were very busy. A bit further on we found Pierre and Thierry from Belgium, who confirmed that the date of this year’s 2CV 24-hour race at Spa Francorchamps is 20-22nd October; this is later than usual, so bring your cold/wet weather clothes!  We also met Jukka Isomaki from Finland, who is helping to organise the Raid Mosquito before the World Meeting in Sweden in 2007, and Martijn from the Netherlands, who organises the Van Meeting in Leersum each year.

There were several stalls selling food including pizza, waffles and ice cream, paella, frog’s legs, sweets, bread, and local pattiserie.  We sampled some of the food, carefully avoiding the Cuisses de Grenouilles stall which was doing a roaring trade. We met friends from the Surrey Madhatters, who were camping in the next field. 

We finished our cheese and went in search of other French options.  On the site we sampled frîtes, the local bread and some wonderful pastries which consisted of a shortbread-type base spread with crème pattissière and topped with either sliced strawberries or apple chiffonade; we sampled both - yummy!

After overnight rain (not forecast) Friday dawned cool and overcast.  Many of the cars went off on the convoy, but we decided to stay put. We walked round the site and revisited the flea market to find Louis Barbour selling his 4x4 conversion kits.  Tony Shields of 2CV City was doing well and told us that he had already sold all the 2CV chassis they had brought along.

Having heard good reports we decided to have pizza for lunch and ordered one with tomato, onion and cheese and one with mushroom and crème fraiche.  They were both delicious, but they were absolutely huge; they were so big that they did not fit into the boxes.  Roy and Joyce Brinkman walked by so we invited them to share the pizzas.  They laughed because Ham and Lyn MacDonald had made the same mistake the night before!  We managed to eat about half between us and decided to take the rest back to our camping spot for later.  As we lazed about we were joined by Louis Barbour, who was in an expansive mood. 

The cars started to return from the convoy and soon it was time for the annual regional food tasting, which was not held in the marquee this year, instead clubs were encouraged to set up stalls all over the camp site with the tasters walking around to sample the food.  I am not sure it worked as well as the marquee option.  We walked for a long way and only sampled a few items – including some wonderful mushrooms with a vinaigrette sauce. We went to sleep tired and happy.

The following morning (Saturday) we had to leave to get back to the UK for the 2CV racing at Cadwell Park in north Lincolnshire on Sunday. We decided to make an early start so that we could take a look at the 2CV moto-cross meeting that was taking place nearby at St Cyr en Val which is just south-east of Orléans.  We found the moto-cross event by following some very clear signs to find practice well under way.  A good number of cars were participating and it looked to be great fun.  After talking to a few people and taking some photographs, we moved on to start our journey home – via the local branch of Decathlon for some camping items.

We stopped a couple of times for coffee and to stretch our legs, arriving at the Eurotunnel terminal in good time where were able to take an earlier crossing, arriving at Cadwell Park at 10:30 p.m. where two very exciting races took place the next day, but that’s another story.

The first French National meeting was held 18 years ago when 400 vehicles attended.  Since then the numbers have increased each year and about 2,500 vehicles attended this year’s meeting (we await the final figures).

We thoroughly enjoyed the 2006 meeting; it was in a nice place and was well organised.  We met friends from all over Europe and saw cars from the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Portugal and the UK.  We look forward to next year’s event in France.