RSSOC
INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS
The RSSOC has hosted an International Meeting
in several countries throughout Europe over
the last ten years. These have included visits to Belgium,
Denmark, Germany, Holland,
Switzerland, Scotland and England, some of which we have been
to on more than one occasion.
The event always takes the same format. Our
group will arrive individually by car, most arrivals being on Friday afternoon
or evening, with some coming earlier in the week and a few stragglers early on
Saturday morning ready for a road route of perhaps 90k around the countryside.
This involves stopping off to look at something interesting, a break for lunch,
and several stops to answer questions to specific clues, or to compete in a
small game.
At the end of the day our group will wander
back to our hotel to prepare for dinner and a prize giving.
On Sunday morning we reconvene and leave en
masse to visit an attraction in the area. Examples of things we have done
include a visit to a national park in Holland for a leisurely bicycle ride, a
visit in Germany to a Science Museum and a visit in Belgium to their “Palace of
Versailles” and its wonderful gardens. In 2000 we visited Harewood
House where there were around 400 cars and many owner/members in attendance,
and we were able to enjoy the grounds and gardens and visits to the house
whilst we also holding a round of our International Concours, displaying some
magnificent examples of our marque.
As a rule, we finish at around 2pm on Sunday
with a late lunch so that travellers with long distances home can have time to
start their journey back. Our lunch has on some occasions been provided by the
venue operator, or has been brought to us by our hotel, or we have returned to
the hotel or a local (large!) restaurant for our meal.
Typically, there are around 150 people and
70 cars.
2005 – FRANCE
When in the
Champagne Region, etc. it would be untrue to say we didn’t partake of the odd
“coupe” or so, indeed, we arranged for our group to visit a Champagne Cave
in the area for a tasting. I must have had the wrong idea about this because I
thought a tasting would be a tablespoon of champers in the bottom of the glass,
whereas the House gave each of us three full glasses to “taste”, so to speak
(none-drivers only partaking, we hope!). This, for the group visiting in the
morning, followed by lunch with wine back at the Holiday Inn made a pleasant
background to a convivial lunch. Unfortunately, if you “tasted” in the morning,
then had a glass of lunch, you were probably not best equipped for a 65-mile
rally through French countryside, but when in the Champagne Region, etc.
Scimitar Pam and I
had looked at various Rally routes, and visited several towns in an effort to
find somewhere we could all sit down to lunch on Saturday, but we just could
not find a location anywhere, so we changed the route completely, shortened it
to a half-day and returned to the hotel for lunch. I’m very pleased we made
this decision as it was remarkably hot, and we needed all the shade we could
get. A pic-nic in an open area would have warmed the
wine, melted the food and melted us too.
France is an interesting country.
It is of course much bigger than the UK, and its population is bigger
than ours too, but many folk live in rural communities, and are unprepared to
travel long distances to get to work. Those of you who have travelled
through France
on the N-roads will be familiar with villages through which you pass that show
no signs of life. Our 65-mile route took us through such communities, and I can
safely say that over all the route we passed ONE
petrol station, saw ONE SNCF rail station, ONE small hotel and ONE bar. There
were no shops, cafés, or other places where we could stop for refreshments or a
comfort break. I always understood that by law rural France had to provide a boulangerie (bakery) within a certain distance of
residences, but this is no longer true. Deliveries of bread and milk are made
by local tradesmen, just as it was when I was a kid. (OK, not by horse and
cart!) In short, if you want peace and
quiet, uninterrupted by anything except a kid on a 50cc moped, this is the life
for you.
This meant that we
virtually had the whole of our 65-mile route to ourselves and our International
Travellers were able to enjoy miles of unspoiled
countryside with little else to hinder progress. If you are ever in the region
of the Parc de la Fôret de l’Orient,
do make a detour. It is well worth it.
As I mentioned
earlier, our Rally route was simplified this time. In previous years we have
arranged stops for little tests but as there were to be no helpers we decided
we could run the event without support by omitting these tests and giving our
contestants photographic clues that could be seen from the car. Amazingly,
clues that we had discerned as difficult and awarded three points proved to be
easy, whilst easy clues were apparently more difficult than we thought. Thirty
marks were awarded for answering four questions and recognising
the locations of seventeen photographs.
The route took us
through the forest, and out onto many quiet “D” roads, some with hairpin bends
that I am sure reminded our Competitor Members of hill climb courses in the UK.
Much of the route passed through unspoiled villages, some which appeared to
have been untouched for a hundred years, others lovingly restored by the
present owners. I forgot to ask if anyone had seen the magnificent bulls in the
pretty village of
La Loge-Aux-Chèvres.
I’d want to be sure they stayed in their fields, and I also should have made
sure to ask if anyone had seen the small deer we saw over a period of two days
on remote roads. The area teems with domesticated and wild life.
So, did anyone get
full marks? Yes, they did! 30 points were awarded to James Mason, who was
driving a left-hand drive MGB and was on his own. He was followed closely by
mum and dad, Ros and Phil Mason with 28 points, so
the Pallasch Trophy goes to France this year where it will stay
in the south for a year. Third prize was jointly awarded to Gordon and Lesley
Collins and Tony and Hilary Penfold, who each managed
26 points. This year we awarded the Long-Distance prize to Clive and Jenny
White, who had a journey of 1065km in their Scimitar Sabre.
This was not actually the longest distance as this was some 1192km from Vejle Ost, the home of Steffen
and Annelise Hansen, who had won on several occasions before.
Our Sunday outing
saw us collected by coach – two I fact – and delivered near the railway station
at Troyes. The
French pronounce this as “Twogh” and the “gh” is a guttural sound. There we were met by two guides,
one of who was a slightly eccentric Englishman, who had lived in the town for
twelve years. We were entertained to a guided tour of the old part of the town,
which in its way is rather like walking through the old parts of York. This was a very
interesting journey into the past and thoroughly enjoyed by all. At the end of
the tour there was time for a break before the returning to the coach, but as
the shops were closed, a welcome stop at a pavement café for a beer was by for
the best option.
Did we have a good
time? You bet! Thanks to everyone who attended, and all who helped out. And
thanks to Scimitar Pam for performing her annual Rain Dance. It worked a treat
– the weather was beautiful.
FÔRET DE L’ORIENT
This area called
the Fôret
de l’Orient is part of France’s heritage. It is very
beautiful and quiet, with little traffic tranquil waters. The roads are clear,
and we would guess that if a Frenchman is in a queue of four cars he would
think he is in a traffic jam. The motorway network to get there is excellent,
and the easy journey from Calais
will cost tolls of around 22 euros for 250 miles, plus petrol.
The Holiday Inn
hotel, our base for our 2005 meeting rests in a lovely forest location. Anyone
wishing to camp can do so near Géraudot, quite near
to the Holiday Inn and we were told there are two other hotels in the area, a
two and three star.
France must on
average be around 750 miles “tall” and 800 miles “wide” and is probably unique
because in all that space you can imagine that there are, excluding the big
cities, probably 100 petrol stations, 20 corner shops and 20 toilets, and none
of the latter are “public”, so to speak. The Champagne
region typifies this because we found mile after mile of unspoiled countryside
interlaced with about 80 million vines for champagne production. Not a shop in
sight. Nowhere to buy a bag of crisps or a coke for the kids, or jelly babies
for yourself, plus the strong probability that you’ll make a 10-mile detour to
fill up the tank. On our first day we drove around 50 miles and never passed a
shop, a bar or a filling station, and therefore – no toilets. Presumably there
is no French translation for the word “incontinence”!
CHAMPAGNE
The vines grow in chalk, which is ideal
for the chardonnay and pinot noir type of grape. The summers are beautiful, and
the winters harsh, although the vines will survive winter frost and snow. We
have arranged a visit to a typical champagne cellar – this one actually sells
hundreds of bottles a year to Tesco – we will have a
tasting, and a guided tour of the manufacturing process.
NEXT YEAR – DENMARK
Steffen Hansen had
been talking to me about the impossibility of organising
an International Meeting in Denmark
in 2006. I told him we were changing the format of these meetings to make them
easier to organise, easier to run and easier on the travellers. I asked him to wait until this International
and promised it would be easier. Steffen was pleasantly surprised and realised that the easier format now gives us the potential
to organise an event in Denmark. The good news is that
Steffen and Annelise are already working on an event in June 2006 and I have
been looking on the Internet at Danish Seaways transport costs from Harwich to Esbjerg, all of which could make a visit to Denmark in June
next year a viable proposition. I’ve done some work on prices too. DFDS Seaways
will give us a group rate. It’s conceivable that we could take a car and two
passengers over to Denmark for as little as £226, although it all rather
depends on how soon we book, A
realistic price is more likely to be £326 for two people sharing, but the price
comes down if four or more share a larger cabin. (Don’t worry,
you all get a bed!) I’ve printed a form in SLICEMART with the likely dates of
travel in June 2006. The days are different because the ferry runs every two
days, so make a note not to be doing anything else during the two weekends
until we have a firm date.
So, why go by boat? Simply because of the costs. Driving to Dover,
or the Channel Tunnel, then through France
into Belgium (hello Hotel
Rostune/Clio), Antwerp in Holland,
then into Germany via Eindhoven, Münster
and Hamburg into Denmark and onto the provisionally
proposed destination is 1,200km and that’s 750 miles each way. If Jimmy the Scimmy does 25 to the gallon I’ll be looking at 60 gallons
and probably £250 in fuel. It isn’t possible to do the trip in a day, and
potentially two overnight stops would be required, which could add £250 to the
transport costs without eating. Suddenly, the maximum DFDS Seaways fare of £390
(plus food over 18 hours) looks quite appealing against my petrol, overnights
and ferry crossings which will set me back around £600, plus food over 60
hours. All we need then is a set of standard sea legs, or tablets if necessary!
Watch this space and we’ll let
you know what is happening. If you were on the visitors list for the 2005
International we’ll mail you automatically.
GEnMan
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