The best advice therefore remains to only entrust your car to someone experienced in dealing with 2CVs, because our fear is that this will be used as an excuse to fail and thus write off, otherwise perfectly good vehicles.

Ham

The filming by Granada TV (to be broadcast on satellite only unfortunately) seemed to be a success. It will probably go out in September or October on a Thursday night.

The Annells Family in Paris

The Week Before

Barry had 3 cars to finish, so very late nights so all of us could be on the 12:15 ferry on the Wednesday.

Tuesday 19th/Wednesday 20th

Barry calls to say it was going to be a long night (many times have we had these leading up to a Citroen event). Well poor Lynne got her car back at about 12 am (Barry said it would be done so it was). Now down to doing Wayne’s and ours. So I had a lonely dinner and sat wondering what time Barry would get home. At 2:45 a call from Barry to say he was nearly done. I went to bed, only to wake to find Barry crashed on the sofa. He had got home at 4:30ish, so little sleep for Barry. We got everything and everybody in the car but the time was 10 am so we were not at Clacket Lane ! We had to make a mad dash to the Post Office to get the car taxed. I did that while Barry filled up with fuel.

Luckily Barry and Wayne got it going. A very nice Frenchman showed us on the map where to go. The turning was so hard to see we went past it and we went round and round trying to find the right way. We found a road that Barry knew so we were on our way and then we went past another turning that we needed. We all turned round and then seemed to be lost so we stopped to look at the map. Barry had turned the car off as he was getting a bit fed up - you guessed it - the car would not start. We pushed it to a place where Barry could look at it. He found it was the coil - luckily he had a spare and did a quick change and after a look at the map Ray took the lead. Then he stopped because the signs were confusing. We saw the way we wanted so we led off again. We seemed to be going wrong but all of a sudden I saw a 2CV sign - at long last we had found the camp.

I had Louise asleep in our tent, Peter was hungry so I gave him something to eat and by this time Barry had crashed out in the tent (mind you it was 12:00) so I just threw things into the car until morning.

Thursday

Barry took Peter up to the big tent with Wayne, Maggie and Ray. Barry met up with loads of his friends from all over - France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland and Belgium. (James was amazed that Barry knew so many people)

Friday

Barry and Ray went to the flea market - when I saw he had bits I was seeing red until he said they belonged to Ray. We had left our car at the top so we could get out faster on the convoy to Paris. We walked up, stopping off to see Tim & Anny. We joined the queue and got to the starting point just off the motorway. The atmosphere was electric and we were having a great time. (Yes even I could feel relaxed for a change) What a lot of cars ! The people were amazed to see so many 2CVs. Louise, Peter, Barry and I were loving it. I was keeping my eyes open as we were approaching the Arc de Triomphe, cars coming in every direction - some were not very happy having us hold them up. Then we were on the Champs Elysées. What a feeling being in this convoy ! We followed the route but decided that we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. We went back up the Champs Elysées and round the Arc de Triomphe again, seeing it from another angle. After a quick pit stop for Louise we were soon at the Eiffel Tower. We had some lunch in the park where a pigeon took a shine to Louise and left a ‘deposit’ on her shoulder so we made our move back to the camp.

After a look at the map I could understand where we were (that makes a change says Barry). We got to a junction but the roads were not the right ones ! We sat looking at the map and then a lovely couple knocked on the window and showed us the way. Next we followed a Frenchman who took a long route but we finally ended up at the site - perhaps he was lost too ! In the evening Barry set out to collect Thomas from the Eurostar but the train came in with no Thomas ! This was due to the ticket man at Guildford putting Thomas onto the slow train to Waterloo and not the fast one.

Saturday

In the morning Barry, Louise and Peter went back for him again and then went shopping. I was able to relax for a while. That evening Barry, Peter and Thomas went to the tent again and met up with all his friends.

Sunday

We took the children to play crazy golf and had a great time. In the evening we had everyone round to our tents. There were 31 of us under two gazebos. The party finished at around 11:00 because everyone had to pack in the morning.

Monday

A quick shower started the day and then down to packing the car. We had an extra load with Thomas but we managed. (we know how Lynne & Ham feel with all their family packed in theirs) We waved goodbye to the others as they left at 8:30ish and we left at 10:00 while Angela & Richard were still packing. The front desk took a while and then we filled up with fuel and visited the hypermarket. We went a little out of our way to the N16 - it was hilly and our poor car was slow. We made it to a service area about 90 miles from Calais. By this time we knew we would not make the ferry. Maggie rang us on the mobile phone - there was nobody else at the port yet ! We had a coffee and fuel stop and set off again. We bought Thomas a ticket and were on the 6:00 ferry where we met Dave & Andy and heard their story. Our boat only had two engines but we were only a little late.

I will never complain about having to map read in England again.

Gloria