French Run to Reims - 2010

A Weekend in Reims April 10^th & 11th - Entry Closed
Members came to Reims from both sides of the World to gather for the first French Rally of the 21st Century for the Club 

The full Rally report (non competitive) will appear in the next Renotes but a quick write up will appear here.

I set off a week before for Reims as I had a bridge to see and 1000+ miles to cover. I planned to take the 4CV but as it's only just got it's MOT after over 40 years off the road I thought prudence was in order. After all, last year it looked like this! I was not to be the only one with problems, the Caravelle, having had a new sump gasket decided to make interesting (and potentially disastrous) engine music and wisely the owner decided to leave it at home and bring a modern (none French :-( ) vehicle. The above shot only contains the Renault's that came, In period range and fully toyed up Renault Scenic and a rather old Renault Clio 1.5 representing the modern aspect, A Renault 5 Gordini, and Renault 18 representing retro modern (or retro classic), and 2 Renault 12s and a Renault 4 from the late Classics - Had my 4CV and the Caravelle made it we should have had a 50s,60s,70s,80s,naughties and tenties range but maybe next year and yes the general feeling is there will be a next year but maybe looking at 4 days or a bank holiday weekend so there is more time to engine France and Motoring. I'll also be putting more photos on the members only pages.

Anyway after a quick service on the car (new brakes seem in order once every 130,000 miles) and maybe a tyre or two I took the Clio.

and collected a lemon tree and olive tree en route.

Most of the group meet in Dover to catch the boat across and then a choice of the Autoroute or "A" Roads to Neims, avoiding the tram works to the Holiday Inn and the underground Car Park.

The hotel Foyer has a number of classic black and white garage and road scenes, which being in France contain a number of interesting cars. As we arrived a day early we could also tour Reims and add in some of the sites around the town - the rest arrive around 2PM having landed at 11 but there is time for site seeing before dinner and on Sunday.

Reims Eglisé (Church/Cathedral)

and Tourist Information

Also Reims is (or was) installing a tram system. The locals jokingly say using the Edinburgh Tram Company. Apparently it's overrunning rather a lot or as it appears here, just stopped dead. This is the Town Hall. (Mairie), the hotel is next to the Hotel de Police. A novel name for a "Police" Station even for France.

Reims Eglisé (Church/Cathedral)

Reims Eglisé (Church/Cathedral)

Dance School in the Local Park

The Local Skyline

The Local Skyline

The Local Skyline

and evening entertainment.

The other then joined us in Reims. Unfortunately the Caravelle had developed an unusual knocking noise but we still had the 4, 12, 18, Clio, Scenic, Renault 5 Gordini, and many others.

The first stop was at G H Mumms for a tour of the cellar and then on to a smaller Champagne producer where we all had the chance to practice our sword skills opening the bottles for dinner. We are all still here....

The club also bought Mike a tankard for his sterling work that went into preparing the run, route sheet and arrangements.

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