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April’s club run

By admin 04/02/2017 04/02/2017 2cv, Citroen, Mehari, Social

Picture Debbie Brown

Well I’m sure most of the people who attended the meeting today spent some of their Saturday, washing and polishing their pride and joy 🙂 🙂 🙂 The reason behind it is that Sean had organised for a reporter & photographer of the Jersey Rural magazine to join the convoy and do a little article on our club for their June issue.

All members were pre-warned about the lovely reporter, and we had a good turn out of about 9 cars for the convoy and 10 for the final refreshments as our Chairman joined us at the end for a coffee with his burgundy Charleston.

We started off at a very breezy St Catherine, and we all tried very hard parking next to each other, with Phil turning out to be a very good parking attendant in his retirement age, I can’t help wondering if he was an honorary police officer in his past life? Anyway, spot the odd one out on the picture below !!!

Picture Murielle Nicolas

Titinne was very keen and the first one to arrive, followed by Phil & his grandchildren, Jo, Scarlett, with Helen & Debbie, Celeste with Jo & Mark, Cassis with Annie & Gary, Clive & Liza in Gladys, their green & white Dolly, Lyndon & Dina Pallot in a lovely white 2cv, Lynn & Steven Austin-Vautier and Camille, carrying Sean and Cathy the reporter of Rural Magazine.

Picture Debbie Brown

A route was set to take us to Les Fontaines pub were we would meet up with the magazine photographer, Gary Grimshaw. Sean kindly agreed to avoid any steep hill that would require a hill start as my short legs and arms makes this a difficult juggling act in Titinne…. so he took off and I followed, then all the convoy snaked up behind me.

Sean forgot that a convoy is slower than a single car and took off like a whippet running after the rabbit – vroom vroom he was gone, at first I followed his example, but as the other convoy members disappeared off my rear mirror, I lifted my foot from the pedal and cruised along until they caught up. Good job I had the sense to ask James to switch allegiance and ditch his ‘pop’ to jump in Titinne (everyone knows I get lost in a pocket hanky, so to let me loose on the north coast might be a bit daring) as Sean soon disappeared from you. James took over with the co-piloting and told me where to turn… We soon caught up with Sean who was patiently waiting for us to arrive by the side of the road.

Picture Debbie Brown

Movie – Debbie Brown

We all arrived at Les Fontaines pub and parked beautifully in front of the pub (feature picture, taken by Debbie Allen). As the Motor Cross was on, we were unable to loop around Sorel as planned, so we left the pub to head towards Rue de la Butte as the request of the photographer who hitched a lift in Scarlet. We had a first run following Sean, but as Camille is a bit taller than the other cars, it was difficult for the photographer to get a picture of all the cars snaking by. So off we went for round 2, led by Celeste and after our cars had stopped preening themselves in front of the camera, we headed back to La Fontaine Pub. Where Debbie took the video (on left) of our cars looking like they are on speed 🙂

Picture Murielle Nicolas

A few of us were interviewed and had more pictures taken, whilst the others went to grab a table and order refreshments. And it wasn’t long before the usual banter started around the table.

A lovely interlude with other 2cv fanatics…. our club is growing from strength to strength.

Until next time.

Murielle

December Club Run (4th December 2016)

By admin 12/05/2016 12/05/2016 2cv, Christmas, Citroen, Mehari, Social

Reminiscing

Wow, hard to believe that a year ago we were doing our first club run from St Catherine to the Watersplash, dressed up in our Christmas finery and cars glittered up to the headlamps….

Last year, Gary gave us girls a treat when managed to split his Santa’s trousers 😜 but no such luck this year as he was dressed a little more conservatively.

The Costumes

Like last year, we were lucky to have 3 Santas behind the wheels of our classic mean machines, (Gary, Eddie & Phil) but the best look alike had to go to Phil again this year (well he had brought the grand children with him as props, and sweets ….). There were a few gorgeous Christmas jumpers (Jo, Helen, Annie & Peter) and a very well wrapped up Mrs Santa (me) who came without Titinne (who cried out sick and was in the workshop)

The ride

As my Titinne is temporarily off the road, Eddie kindly picked me up in Noddy (my first trip in a Mehari), it was 1 degree celsius that morning, so I made sure I was well wrapped up, fleece line tights with stripy red & white socks over them, my red skirt, red jumper, overcoat, red beret (I’m French after all and I couldn’t find the Christmas hat) and snood over the top… Oh and the necktube/face cover I wear on the motorbike and cosy gloves. I was not taking any chances.

Eddie kindly put the heating on….. really? there is a heater in Noddy? Or was he just taking the Micky? I didn’t feel any heat at all as the wind was buffeting us from the sides (Noddy as a roof, and that’s it). We made good time from St Brelade to the meeting point at St Catherine, by this stage, I rushed into the cafe and ordered hot chocolates for both of us trying to bring circulation back in my fingers… We must have looked like frozen Mr & Mrs Santa when we walked in as people stared at us for a while.

Soon the other nutters, I mean, the hard core club members out in all weather and up for dressing up, arrived and the banter started. It was soon time for us to regain our little ice box on wheel and form the tail end of the convoy. Phil took the lead in it’s beautifully decorated white 2cv, followed by Celeste, Cassis and Scarlet with Noddy bringing the rear as it had a little cough and insisted in dying off instead of staying in idle mode at stops… The route was very scenic, not too many hill starts, but lovely narrow lanes with walkers and horse riders waving at our little Christmas convoy. Until we came to a good 8 minutes stop, our leader had come head to head with a BIG Mercedes on one of the very narrow lane, eventually, the posh car relented and reversed a bit, came forward a bit, reversed a bit…. couldn’t make its mind up, it was like the cars were dancing with each other…. Eventually all of us squeezed by the big car without problem, however both driver and passenger did not look very happy, was that because I had my hand sticking out of the side holding the camera and taking pictures?

As we were going past the riffle range at Crabbe, a few guns shots were heard, which according to Gary, made Annie jump out of her skin and nearly falling out of Cassis…. Lucky for her she had her seat belt on 😳. Not sure if this scared Noddy too or if he wanted to make some noise but he started backfiring down the hill and then decided to cut out leaving us free wheeling all the way down (saving on petrol I guess).

Finally after an hour’s drive, we had reached our destination, the Watersplash, Eddie and I left everyone in the car park as we raced each other to the inside of the bar to see who could get to the heat first !!!! For some reason, he got served last, so whilst I was waiting for my hot chocolate to arrive, I was borrowing Mark’s coffee cup to get feeling back in my little fingers…. Boy it was a cold ride, I could have picked a sunny day to have my first Mehari ride, but I like to give myself a few challenges… A very enjoyable ride if a little cold for Mr & Mrs Santa, but at least, our car didn’t have any condensation on the windows….

Our Chairman, Peter joined us at the Watersplash, as well as Stuart and Penny who were unable to make the start. Always nice to catch up with our 2cv friends over a coffee for a few jokes and 2cv stories.

Next outing, New Years Day………

November club meeting

By admin 11/06/2016 11/06/2016 2cv, Citroen, Mehari, Social

Not a bad turn out

Our first afternoon meeting was well attended, and our Chairman arrived on time to lead the convoys to the West of the island.

Our meeting point, on this sunny Sunday afternoon was the Jardin de la Mer car park, in St Helier, and our straight line (well nearly), sticking to main roads, path took us to Jersey Pearl at the end of the 5 miles road for well deserved teas/ coffees, scones and cakes. I’ve even seen some hot chocolates being served to some of our group partial to sweet things. Parking there was a bit hickeldy-pickledy as we had to slot in between cars that were already there but we managed to squeeze ourselves in…

Nice to catch up with nearly everybody, we raised a cuppa to our absent friends that for various reasons couldn’t be with us today, well life happens after all !

I feel the need to give a special mention to Ricky who turned up with his blue 2cv for the 2nd time and Clive & Sylvia who brought back their 2cv, all nice and shiny after having been to the body shop following an argument with another car who had tried to climb on its back… The cheek ! Nice to see Phil and James back for a spin in their white 2 cv too. 😀

Having missed, the last meeting due to work commitment, I was pleased to be able to join the gang today, although, sadly, I had to attend without Titinne as she is still in the car hospital having major surgery. I’m sure she’ll have something to say on her blog about me going without her when she gets back… But I wasn’t the only one ‘sans’ 2cv as Steven and Lynn had been unable to get theirs out of the garage as a pesky scaffolding post was in the way. They came though, so Kudos to them !!!

Next meeting on Sunday 4th December – meet 10:00 am at St Catherine breakwater (earlier if you want a drink) and leave 10:15 to go to the Splash for breakfast at 11:30. Our lead car, route plotter will be Phil Rondel, who kindly volunteered his services 😉

See you then
Murielle

September coffee

By admin 09/05/2016 09/05/2016 2cv, Citroen, Social

Weather, what weather?

Well what can I say about the weather? after a week of glorious sunshine (when we were all at work wanted to go and play outside) and a lovely Saturday it looked like we were going to have a good time with a BBQ/picnic… Well not this time!

The morning was dreary and it was decided via email that we would still meet at Le Braye at 5 but for coffee instead of food as the westerly gales were blowing and something wet was falling out of the sky 🙁 . And then, I got reminded that Le Braye closed at 5 on the Sunday… Quick change of plan to bring the time forward to 4:30, facebook page changed, email sent out… Always worth keeping an eye in your inbox on the day of the club meetings!

Welcoming a new member in an ‘old’ car

Those of us who braved the weather (Jo & Mark, Helen & Ben, Murielle & Chris, Stuart & Penny and last but not least Chris) gave a warm welcome to Ricky and Paula who came to their first get together in a shiny blue Cecile that they had bought from Cathy. I was a bit surprised to hear that Ricky was also the proud owner of a Harley as he was neither old or fat … I might have to revise my opinion of Harley riders 😉

As usual, a little bit of banter, I got gently chided for turning up 15 minutes late as I was living the closest to the meeting… No valid excuse really, except that I had an impromptu visit from daughter number 1 and I had to wait for her to leave before being able to join the gang…

As per usual our cars got a fair bit of attention, parked together, and the few surfers brave enough to come out were commenting and taking pictures as we were hugging our hot drinks huddling round our outside table.

On the way home

We all seem to exit the car park and drive towards la Pulente, were we came a across a collision between 2 cars, and had to wait for the ambulance to park itself. (heard later that no one had seriously been injured). A bit surprised to also cross path with not 1 but 3 police cars going hell for leather with blue lights flashing and sirens and all going in the same direction… An eventful trip home!

Always nice to see the gang, and to meet new people so until next month, drive safely guys !

Photos: Murielle Nicolas

Off to the 2016 Brittany meeting in June

By admin 08/23/2016 08/23/2016 2cv, Citroen, Mehari, Social

Commentary: Eddie Noel
Photography: Peter Kinley

Peter and I attended the annual Brittany 2Cv rally in June in the village of Croisty near Pontivy

Our weekend trip started with a gentle drive from St Malo, via the new Decathlon just outside to buy a bike rack for Peter which did not fit inside his car so it was lobed in the back of my Mehari. Then on across central Brittany for a lunch stop of galettes and a small cup of local cidre.

We arrived at Croisty only to find out that despite paying on one cheque for both of us they only had Peter booked. A quick check of the paying in slips found our joint payment and I was entered into the rally. Peter was quite the celebrity with the organisers as we were the only no Brittany entrants and they were expecting him with open arms.

We returned to the camp site just before the clouds opened at which point I realised that I had left half of my tent in Jersey! Luckily Peter’s tent slept 3 so we got it set up just as the heavens came down on us.

Back to the Salle and we were welcomed to a galette dinner, and a glass or two, three of some vino.

It was raining hard and the local folk band huddled with us under a marquee and so the evening continued.

Our entrance fee was €28 each, for which we got our rally plate and goody bag complete with red triangle, pen, stickers, club de cassis catalogue etc. It also included our meal on Friday night, breakfasts Saturday and Sunday mornings and of course the grand dinner on the Saturday evening, along of course with the rally itself on the Saturday…bargain

Saturday the rain stopped so Peter and I decided to do the rally in my Mehari and leave his 2Cv behind. 90 k of tulip diagrams to guide us around the beautiful Brittany countryside route. What we did not realise it was that some 15 to 20 k was off road!

Great great fun, and the welcome from all the locals was outstanding.

They closed the roads around Croisty for the rally and 150 2cv’s parked up taking pride and place. Shop windows with cartoon paintings of 2cv’sand the whole village coming out to see the local dancers and enjoy an Apero. We also saw a 2cv bar driving around the village together with a car that can be completely dismantled and rebuilt within 15 minutes and driven off.

The return journey the heavens opened up again and soaked us just outside Dinard, OK for Peter but a challenge for me to stay dry in Noddy.

Overall a brilliant rally combined with fantastic hospitality.

We will be back next year near La Baule, come along and join us, you won’t be disappointed

Wet August meeting

By admin 08/07/2016 08/07/2016 2cv, Citroen, Mehari, Social

I will start by apologising for the lack of car pictures on this update and the recycling of other meeting picture for the header… The lack of sunshine and abundant flow or water coming down from the sky meant that we dashed from the cars to the watering holes without the usual chit chat and photo taking…

Lynne ready for the weather

We could have been forgiven to think that it was October instead of August, the day started with a light drizzle who had become really dense by the end of our ride out.

Emmy led by Stuart and with Penny as passenger, took the lead and in Stuart true fashion took us through lanes I could only have dreamed of. The route was from Gorey to Cafe Ouen, just off Plemont. I had a relatively straight route in my head that did not match the path Stuart led us through. Considering I have been on the island for 28 years and consider myself a ‘local’ now, I should be ashamed to admit that most of the morning, I didn’t have a clue where I was. All I know is that there were lots of hills (so going up and down).

The places I recognised were (in no particular order):

Gorey village
The road to St Catherine
Rozel
The top of Bonne nuit bay (thank goodness we didn’t do that hill)
Mourier Valley
Devil’s hole
The Crabbe riffle range (although how we did get there I don’t know),
Greve de Lecq
Cafe Ouen

The little 15 miles/hour lanes we went through were very bendy, steep at times and really made out cars stand out from the back according to Eddie who was bringing up the rear in Noddy. As usual we got plenty of smiles and waves from the people walking the lanes and we were all very careful when overtaking a horse.

The long meandering drive eventually took us to our destination. Upon arrival, we all noticed that Camille had beaten us to it as Sean and his guest were already sitting in the dry and had ordered their collation. Sean did say that he had been to the start but had arrived after we had left… and he obviously took a route more direct than the one we had been onto! 🙂

The redeeming moment for me was when I heard my fellow drivers and passengers admitting that I hadn’t been the only one getting lost in the lanes this morning as it transpired that at time Stuart himself didn’t know where he was leading us too….

On the roll call today, we had Scarlet (with Helen, Ben & Debbie), Celeste (with Jo & Mark), Emmy (with Stuart & Penny), a Grey Charleston (with Lynne & Steven), Camille (with Sean and Jacki), Noddy (with Eddie) and Titinne (with Murielle).

I must not finish without mentioning that Chris had sent an email with a picture of Little Mule to remind us that although he couldn’t be with us today, he did have a 2cv and it wasn’t a figment of his imagination :).