April 27th/30th2001 Belgium Jumble (brilliant this year..a must do event in 2001

May 2001 French International..WED 23RD MAY-SUNDAY 27TH MAY

25/30July 2001 world meeting,Carinthia,  Austria (book your holidays now!!!) will reissue booking forms next year but should book ferries to get cheaper rates before jan (see back page for details) so we are all on the same ferry?
Web site..http://geocities.com/Paris/2038/2001/contact.htm//Presse

August 2001 International 2CVGB Stanford Hall-Lutterworth (see web site www.tameducklings.co.uk) near Leicester

The 2002 International??? , most people seemed to want a field and a beer tent..
Anyway well done Dave, we all thought it was a good idea, thanks for all your hard work. We stayed on for a good buffet and a few drinks, then a quick drive back down the M1/M25 in the evening

With the French National and the World meeting in 2001 we need to work out dates and ferries to take advantage of cheap ferry pre-booked prices by booking early. Dave has his finger on the cheap ferry prices so watch the newsletter, the dates you need to know are: (see diary-editor) French one could be done on a 5 day ticket by going overnight Portsmouth Lehavre or Port/Cherbourg on Tuesday and returning overnight. You could of course make it a week from Dover Calais on a cheap pre-booked ticket (see insert on internet pricing-editor)

World meeting-AUSTRIA) I feel we need to leave Sunday 22 July for a reasonable 3 day trip (its near Slovenia-editor) with 3 camping overnight stops or drive more quickly and leave on the Monday with two overnight stops., discussion at December meeting.

The French meeting is in the Burgundy/Auvergne area, Diou is the town from the publicity after the last meeting., on the upper Loire. I realise this meeting is in term time (schools break up the Friday of the meeting) but if you can possibly make it to either of these meetings please join us,, why not make one of these your holiday as well? A world meeting is a wonderful experience and only happens every three years, so Italy in 2003 will be next (rumours are that England will put in for the meeting after Italy-Editor)

SHARKS SEEN IN SURREY FLOODS…..BEWARE????

THE 2CV A.G.M. Milton Keynes

A report from the chairman………...
Bill and I and Dave Shove set out from Staines -up the M40 to the centre of the Universe -Milton Keynes. Just outside the town we picked up a third car GOT, from John Rooney from Wessex Ducks. Bob also met us there, so together with Kathryn Doddington we had five Madhatters there. We had a bite to eat and Dave Shove set up a display about the Beaulieu proposed venue for the 2002 International, the Middle East Nomads set up a very up-market display for Belvoir Castle (do you remember we were treated with disdain when we set up the Merrist Wood display?)

A surprise awaited us at the beginning of the meeting when it was announced that Barry Bowles was not attending (2cvgb chairman), he was in India attending a friends wedding ,so Maurice had to wear two hats and be Chairman and Treasurer. The upshot of the Elections was that Kathryn was elected Secretary, Bev Abbott (ex editor) was elected P.R.O., and Dot Moran and Dave Budett are joint editors of the mag.. Last but by no means least I am now on the committee as non-designated member.

I will serve for a couple of years but if I don't like the politics and in fighting then I will probably give up. Life is too short for such silly games.

Our Dave Shove put on a good presentation on Beaulieu, questions were asked about the price of beer in the SOUTH,, TRAFFIC JAMS IN THE New forest, and the time the music had to stop., the venue did not seem to be of interest to the 155 members present..

In the vote ,we lost to Belvoir Castle just 50 miles from the 2001 venue, what happened to the idea of moving venue around the country? Maybe when we try again (which we should do-Editor) we should find a field 

Ferry offers...
CURRENT OFFERS ..NORFOLK LINE, Brand new (Excellent) boat from DOVER TO DUNKERQUE, next to Calais) 5day return £79.. book before March 2001,telephone 0870 8701020 for details (ideal for Austria/Italy/Belguim)

P and O offering 3 day returns,Portsmouth Cherbourg incl cabin £78,up to Xmas..

Seafrance..book before 10th Jan,5day return £79..over 5 days £119,or book and pay before 4th April 2001 £89 for 5 day or £169 for over 5 days

P and O Stena same as above but £89/£129,etc(so £10 more all round
Remember 15%discount of P&O ferries from Portsmouth if you quote 2cv Club

If you're on the web look at ferrysavers.co.uk

Euro tunnel..best for day trip, go for £15 return after 2pm,or after 6pm fri/sat and turn up two hours early, they will just put you on the next train...trust me….or £29 after 1500 any day and arrive two hours early….(saves over an hour and a quarter on the ferry trip as well)

Another month has flown by, we had the usual crowd of stalwarts at the last meeting, but we all enjoyed a chat and a few jokes. We did decide not to have a Xmas meal ,just bring a raffle prize and your xmas cards to the next meeting, December the 12th,and we can make it as festive as possible, we will not miss out on a festive occasion, we decided to have a lunctime Curry Buffet one Sunday in January (details later in the newsletter), Lynne And Ham know of two good places and by the time this goes to press we hope to have more details..

Another event, probably in February, will be a convoy to Chislehurst caves.. on a Sunday there is a conducted tour of the caves, which have been there for hundreds of years, we will probably convoy from Guildford,, details later.
We do hope that those of you that we only see from time to time will try and make it to the December get together, so we can have a good end to the year, lets see if we can get at least 20 of us there on Tuesday night
Happy Christmas
Gill and Bill 

NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.. (contributions welcome)

The so-called German Dome, the Expo2000 festival, is to close at the end of this month after running up debts of over £800m.The organisers predicted around 40m visitors, in fact around 16m turned up, however it has still been hailed as a proud monument to German design and success by the German press and public. They don't have the Sun or the Guardian over there then!

Two students set out for Dover in a 12ft wardrobe in 1971 from France but were rescued by the English coastguards 12 miles from the coast. The coastguard said ”they covered about 17 miles in three hours. Even with the wind behind them that's good going for a wardrobe.!

Japanese rail losses are now so enormous that they consume more of the G.N.P. than defense and health put together...it is estimated that they are overstaffed by around 80% but no one is allowed to be sacked .. .Sncf French railways now run more buses than trains but under French law tracks are not allowed to be lifted or staff made redundant, losses are anticipated to be around £150 per passenger carried per month .There but for the grace of god, etc, etc

Rumours abound on the Internet that a company in France is going into full time production of new 2cv using new components except for rebuilt engines to get round emmission regulations…….watch this space, you heard it here first

THE 2CV AGM.THE EDITORS VIEWPOINT
This was one of the more interesting GM,S that I have attended, the non-attendance of the 2cvgb Chairman was dissapointing but more of a shame was that once again the lack of turnout of Southern Club members meant that Northern groups got most of the committee positions and the International because we were quite simply outvoted. No one should complain that the club is northern based when they take the trouble to turn up and we don't...after all Milton Keynes is hardly “up North”

It was also disappointing that some members from the south did turn up for the first part of the meeting then went home when they had sorted out their problems, not bothering with the second part and losing us votes.
If clubs in the south do not make more effort there will be no changes..


HAPPY XMAS FROM ALL AT THE MADHATTERS...E-MAIL US IF YOU ARE READING THIS MAGAZINE FOR THE FIRST TIME...YOU COULD GET THE FULL VERSION SENT TO YOU FREE!!!!!

W.W.W./CITREON2CV.ORG.CO.UK/MAIL US