Retromobile 2017

As is our wont, we went to Paris last week to do some business and to attend Retromobile.

It was certainly the biggest edition of Retromobile we have yet been to, and would really have required two days with plenty of beer breaks to appreciate everything properly. As usual, there was plenty of eye candy, most of which would require you to be a lottery winner to buy. Having said that, there was still some serious coveting going on. Susan's most coveted cars were:

Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic Coupé. An original one of these will set you back

well over 35million US dollars. There was only 4 made, 2 are left

Bayard a Clément AC4r from 1904. There were a number of cars in use during the day, 

and this wasn't the oldest

One of the car dealers had a display made up completely of Bentleys and Bugattis, which understandably attracted a lot of attention, much of it from me. I am less certain about which cars I covet the most, but these two are amongst the front runners.

1924 Bugatti Type 23 Brescia. This car is currently for sale, for a fraction of the

price of Susan's Bugatti - less that half a million Euros

I love the crocodile skin interior

 1931 Bentley 8 Litre Short Chassis Vanden Plas 4-Seat Tourer, custom built for
Bentley Motors chairman Woolf Barnato for his honeymoon in the USA
(although Speed Six "old number 2" in the background is a strong contender)

I have posted a lot of photos on facebook - you shouldn't need a facebook account to look at them and decide if we were coveting the right cars... Album 1  Album 2   Album 3

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Since arriving back from Retromobile I have been a bit poorly. I don't know if I picked up a germ in Paris, or if it was coming back to a cold house, but for some reason on Monday I had a bit of a cough, which by Tuesday afternoon was raging bronchitis and non stop coughing. On Wednesday I admitted defeat and we made a Doctor's appointment (for the same day, of course) and after starting taking the drugs cocktail (4 prescriptions) I was instantly feeling a lot better. Today I am still feeling where it is, and if I move too quickly (not unknown...) I break out in coughs, but I am on the mend - hooray.

Retromobile 2026

Retromobile opens today in Paris. The headline news for us is that once more we're not going to be there. We were last there in 2018, then we had a planned break. The plague got in the way in 2020 and 2021, and we fell fell out of the habit. The past two years we've had plans to visit until and then my prostate intervened. It's about time we went again.

In the meantime, some random cars from past years.

Other Retromobile pix can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=simon.bee.94&set=a.1119348471520548

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=simon.bee.94&set=a.1118033614985367

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=simon.bee.94&set=a.1117656171689778

Retromobile - B is for Bentley

As is our customary want, we went to Retromobile again this year. And as is my other customary want, I took a photo of a Bentley Speed Six, because of all the cars in the world, at age 10 all I wanted was a Speed Six Bentley, because they were the biggest, fastest cars ever.

Speed Six Bentley

Speed Six Bentley behind an 8 Litre Bentley

So maybe not the biggest, but I still want one. And I will have its big brother too, because what's an extra million euros between friends? Who wouldn't want an 8 litre, straight 6 open sports car bigger than some member states of the United Nations?

There will be other Retromobile photos to follow, because there were some really interesting cars there (not all of them beautiful).

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Au jardin hier: The almond tree is in full blossom in the orchard. Almonds are very early flowerers but we won't get any almonds, we almost never do. This year the week of wet windy weather will prevent any possibility of pollination. The Abricot Rouge plum is very close to blossoming too. 

Talking to one of the Bio Boys at the market he commented that the rain is no problem, welcome even, but the wind has caused a lot of problems, ranging from being horrible to work in to punching holes in polytunnels and whipping apple trees around. We are expecting gusts of up to 110 km/h today and have an orange weather alert.

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A la cuisine hier: Cheese Crisps, which we have a lot for lunch because they are quick and delicious.

Pork chops, seasoned with a fancy salt and spice mix from Île d'Oléron given to us by Antoinette and Niall, seared and braised, served with mashed potato, steamed chard and boiled carrots. Followed by Tarte fine caramélisée aux pommes. I made some biscuits with the pastry scraps, using the same technique for caramelising them. I thought later I should have made them cheesey. Oh well, next time...

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Loire Valley Nature: An entry has been added for English Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta. Many of you may think you have this plant in your garden but it is almost certainly a hybrid garden cultivar, not the wild species.

Retromobile ......... and also for Beast

The Beast of Turin (otherwise known as the Fiat S76) was at Retromobile this year, along with a couple of other world land speed record cars.

They were:

The 1903 Napier, a 7.7 litre 4 cylinder car, the oldest surviving British race car.

You can read more about it here.

Darracq V8, which was raced in Florida (USA) in January 1906 by Victor Demogeot.

The 25 1/2litre cylinder capacity V8(with 200 hp) achieved 197km/h on a dirt racetrack.

The Beast of Turin. This record-breaking car was designed by Fiat in 1911 specifically to beat the land speed record. Italian engineers mounted the engine – which was originally designed to propel hot air balloons – on a chassis and then built the car around it. 4 cylinders, 300 hp at 1900 rpm for a weight that was not far off a tonne, and a total engine capcity of 28.23 litres (1,730.2 cubic inches). The car managed more than 210 km/h in December 1913 in Ostend. For more on the beast, the Goodwood web site is pretty useful.

The beast (A car for REAL men. It didnt have brakes...)

The Fiat and Darracq were started while we were there. I have video, but it is a bit dark (but all the better to see the exhaust!). Stand back or you'll get your eyebrows singed and your eardrums pierced (watch people recoil in the video!)

There is more on all of these cars on the Retromobile site

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Car News: Célestine was delivered to the mechanic yesterday. She has a clunk front driver's side that we don't like the sound of. The mechanic doesn't have time to look at her this week, but will do so next week and give us his verdict (and price).

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A la cuisine hier: Pasta with creamy tomato sauce, made by combining a tin of tomato sauce with a half pot of leftover cream. A few lardons and some good quality Parmesan cheese, et voilà!

Beef in stout stew and mash from the freezer, served with steamed broccoli. Rhubarb and apple flapjacks from the freezer to follow. Served with a glass of Chateau Gaudrelle sec tendre 2009 Vouvray, which went remarkably well.
 

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry for Choke Epichloe typhina has been added. This relative of Ergot will weaken pasture grasses, but not cause the outbreaks of disease that Ergot still occasionally does.
A new entry for the commonest moss on Earth, Cypress-leaved Plait Moss Hypnum cypressiforme, has been added. 

Retromobile 2018

Since 2011 the dynamic team behind Loire Valley Time Travel (that's us, folks) have visited Paris in February to go to Retromobile. It falls at just the right time of year for us to get away from winter at home for a few days, explore the bright lights of the big city, and do some networking.

This year was no different, so on the Friday of the second weekend in February we hied our way to the exhibition halls at the Porte de Versailles. This year's show was the biggest we have been to, but for me there was no "wow" moment where I saw a piece of exotica or something historically important I never expected to see. Maybe I have become jaded by all those over restored vintage cars being sold at over half a million euros that appear to have been hardly driven at all, and will probably never be driven properly again. You could tell how it was bad when I came over all "ho hum, another shiny Bugatti".

Having said that, there was some interesting stuff:

Not our usual style, but both Susan and I would like this for days when

driving with your arm out the window seems appropriate. A 1956 Buick Special

A Delahaye 135M. Susan really likes this, I prefer mine with more patina

We both agreed we were disappointed that the 21st century hasn't turned out
as stylish as Fiat were promising. A 1953 Fiat Supersonic V8.

I am currently on a bit of a 1950s Lancia kick. A Lancia Aurelia B25 from 1958

There is a Facebook album with more photos here.

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The weather forecast says we have 3 more days of cold, but on Thursday it magically gets about 10 degrees (C) warmer. Let's hope they're right - It's been bightingly cold here

Retromobile 2011 part 1 (no doubt)

Last Friday Susan and I were in Paris to go to Retromobile. (See how casually I say that? Makes us look windswept and interesting...).

There were, unsurprisingly, lots of cars to look at and covet: an exhibition and sale of ex-presidental cars and a lot more besides (if you start clicking on the photos on that link , any car lover will find that they lose a week of their life), plenty of legendary names, and some iconic cars having birthdays.

The ex-presidential car that most caught the eye
was De-Gaulle's 1960 Simca Presidence V8 Cabriolet

The cars having birthdays were the Renault 4L and the E-Type Jaguar, both first built in 1961. One is British and a sports coupe, the other is French and an everyday driver. Both are much loved and desired by certain parts of the population, but only one is truly affordable.


Over the next couple of weeks we will put up some of the other cars we saw and covet and/or appreciate on aesthetic grounds. This year we didn't buy anything, whereas last year I bought some headlight bulbs. The last of the big spenders, I am!

Simon

View from a Train

Writing about Tours station the other day reminded me that soon (well - in a couple of months time) Susan and I will be heading off to Paris again to visit Retromobile.

The chateau at Chaumont sur Loire

In the past we have travelled to Retromobile by TGV, but the last two trips to Paris we have travelled by the scenic route. It takes twice as long but gives a much better view of France: chateaux and small towns rather than wide open plains and wind turbines. It is also a little cheaper, and because you can't reserve seats you can always get a ticket - as opposed to the TGV where once every ticket is sold, the train is full and no more tickets are sold. This means that even at very short notice you can get a ticket even if it means sitting on your bags in the corridor the whole way. Usually though, you get a compartment and privacy.

The power station at Saint Laurent Nouan

We haven't yet started making plans for January (even we are not that organised) so we have yet to decide which train to take. I still rather like the idea of travelling at 300km/h (186 mph), but the thought of a picnic whilst watching the scenery go past also holds appeal.

Eglise St Vincent, a 17th century Jesuit church in Blois

One thing may sway it towards travelling on the TGV: recently I have seen TGV Duplex trains travelling across the bridge over the Loire river. I have never been on a TGV Duplex, but would really quite like to. A double decker, 300km/h train? Who wouldn't!

I'm a boy....

Simon

Old and New - in Paris

We have written about the hotel Laumiere before, and return here whenever we are in Paris (with one notable exception).

The hotel is about 50 metres from the metro station Laumiere, which was opened in October 1942. This photo was taken not long after that date and comes from the website I mentioned ten days ago.

And here it is on Thursday morning- almost 70 years later. I was well wrapped at the time, as the temperature was -7C. I think that may be why you can actually see the road. Usually this is an intersection full of buses, garbage trucks and people on their way to work, but this is the emptiest I have ever seen it during daylight hours.


The name refers to the Avenue de Laumière, named after Xavier Jean-Marie Clément Vernhet de Laumière, a general who was killed in the French intervention in Mexico in the 19th century.

The reason I was able to take the second photo is because we have been in Paris, visiting Retromobile. It was a bit chilly up there, never getting about freezing point, and snow on Friday evening. When we arrived home after 4 days we discovered that we had no water - the main stopcock where the eau de ville enters the house had frozen. After an hour of gentle heat from an electric radiator the water returned. Phew!

Paris and Retromobile photos will follow later in the week - at the moment we are trying to get the house warm.

Simon

Retromobile

Retromobile is an annual car show, concentrating on veteran, vintage and classic cars. It's held in one hall of the expo centre at Porte de Versailles. Reading that it was on level three of hall 7 made me worried that it would be 8 cars and not much else, but I fretted unnecessarily - it's a huge space with hundreds of desirable cars and bikes.

When (and if) I grow up, I want a classic Bentley:
This is a 3 litre unsupercharged model.

We got there at 11.am after catching the new tram T3. That in itself was a bit exciting, as I have never been on a tram in Paris before, and trams are a favorite mode of transport. It is a bit of a schlep from the entrance to the Parc to hall 7, but at least it was all indoors on moving walkways. Tickets for the exposition are €13 which I thought a bit scary, but then I haven't been to anything like this for over 10 years, so I am rather out of touch.

The biggest car at the show: a Bugatti Royale replica:
6.4 metres long, 3.2 tonnes, 12.7 litre straight 8 engine,
24 inch wheel rims. The photo doesn't convey the sheer size!

One thing that hasn't changed about these events is the catering: we paid over €17 for a cheese and ham roll, a hotdog, one orange juice and a coffee. Outrageous, and exactly of the poor standard one would expect at a trade show. A very poor showing, but we didn't think that €25 each for a 2 course menu was warranted.

Peugeot 401 Eclipse from 1934

I wasn't disappointed with the cars on display though: Susan has a thing for old Jags, and there was a very stylish C-type just inside the door (no good photo of it unfortunately, too many people standing and gawping), and from there it all just got tastier and tastier. A lot of French cars (as you would expect) plenty of British and Italian cars, and a scattering of American and German classics.

A Delahaye, quite possibly styled on
the Citroën Traction Avant

We bought a book about the Traction Avant that looks like it will be really useful- plenty of handy hints for owners as well as having coffee table book style pictures, and the find of finds: 2 headlight bulbs at €10 each. I was tempted to buy some windscreen wiper rubbers (€19) and a queue de carpe (a flattened exhaust tailpipe, fishtail shaped), but didn't. I did speak to the people on the La Traction Universelle stand (all on my own and in French!) about roof racks, and we will probably join the organisation soon - they have some useful resources, and look like they party quite hard.

All in all a good day. More photos will appear as time wears on I am sure - these are just the photos (and/or cars) that jumped out at me

Simon

We've been doing Culture and Stuff

The past week we have been in Paris, staying in a rather nice apartment near the Bastille. We travelled to and from Paris by TGV from Saint Pierre des Corps. It's a bit of an odd time to take an annual holiday, but it does get us out the house at a time of year where not moving from in front of the fire is always an option.

We visited 4 museums and Retromobile, did some shopping, and tried not to look too much like  yokels or foreigners. I don't know how convincing we were, but after 6 years in France Paris is starting to feel like our big city rather than a place to amaze about.

Until we get our thoughts together and write properly about what we did, some photos (on a transport theme).

The metro. I like the metro a lot. This photo shows the benefits of being able to stand really still...

An altogether more stylish form of Transport - a 1955 Alpha Romeo Giulietta spider Bertone. Posssibly the prettiest car at Retromobile

A vending maching for bicycle inner tubes, seen on Boulevard Richard Lenoir

Simon's Retromobile Post

Enough of the cold already!!

Last week we were in Paris at Retromobile, where there were lots of very yummy things to look at. The three cars that really caught my eye were a couple of touring convertibles and an open Bugatti road racing car.

Of those, the one that just transfixed me was the Bugatti. Of course, I took plenty of photos of it, but none that the whole car, which is why I have included a link to someone else's photo. I did take photos of some of the details, including the stopwatches in front of the co-pilot (it would be un-generous to call him anything else). This is a proper le Mans car.

I particularly like the worn away section where

the back seat passenger has been hanging on.

Delahaye 135m from 1938, with bodywork by Henri Chapron.
In the words of whispering Bob: mmmmm nice...

Delage D6 Cabriolet by Guilloré of Paris 1947.
This car is still for sale, with extra pics here

The show was (as usual) really good, but - again, as usual - too long a day. We were contemplating not going this year, but we weakened. Next year we may travel up to Paris in the morning, visit the show in the afternoon, and spend just one night up in the big smoke.

I have loaded more pics onto our facebook page, and will be adding others over the next couple of days. If you want serious car pics (with commentary in French) look here.

Simon

*-14°C this morning, since you're asking

Retromobile 2

One of the smaller, less glamorous vehicles we saw at Retromobile was a Peugeot "Triporteur".

Our jardin/potager is about 600 metres away from the house, just a far enough distance that if we have to take any larger tools with us we have to take the car. What we really need is one of these:

There were two triporteur at the show: this
one was maybe more "authentic"

I say we, of course what I mean is that Susan needs one. I would buy it for her as a present. Any suggestion it would be a bloke style present will be strenuously denied.

Simon

French for Motors

Having been In France for a while, and having hung around mechanical types for a bit, I thought I would pass on some words I have learnt:

First thing to know is le démarreur: the starter, is different to le starter, which is the choke. This is important in Célestine, because the choke knob and the starter knob look the same except for the fact that the choke says S and the starter says D. Confusing, what.

Then we come to the timing chain/belt. This is commonly referred to as la distribution, which is different to la distributeur (although both can sometimes be la distributeur). Thus it pays to check whether the mechanic is talking about one (courroie distribution, very expensive) or the other (tête de distributeur, less expensive, but modern cars don't usually have one) before agreeing with him. If you have a problem with your tête de distributeur, (spark timing) it is a problem of alimentation. If you have a problem with your courroie distribution it usually means a new engine.

A random and very lovely engine from Retromobile.
I have no idea what it's from, but I want one.
(further research says it's a Bugatti Type 28 Torpedo 1922)

Another good word is bougies, which are spark plugs (unless you're very English or from the 1930's and call them sparking plugs). Bougies translates as candles, which are usually translated into French as chandelles, except that chandelles are what some people call headlight bulbs.

Another Retromobile engine. No prizes for this one.

The other word I have learned is roue de secours - spare wheel, or literally "the wheel of help". This is a lot easier than talking about having a trou in your pneu.

Trust me on that last one...

Simon

Retromobile 2015

February is Retromobile month for us - our annual pilgrimage to Paris to look at old cars, meet up with car club people, have a coupe d'honneur and discuss how to make 1950s Traction Avants viable for a 21st century business. It isn't all chat though. In fact, most of the time it is wandering around, looking at cars we would like to own (or rather, wish we could afford) and marvelling at that part of a Venn diagram where art meets function.

The car of the year (or at least the car celebrating a significant birthday) was the Renault 16, now 50 years old. I wonder if those people who owned one in Australia in the 1970s realised they were driving a future museum piece?

One of our favorite cars was this 1924 Delage, with its 200hp V8 engine and flame spitting open exhausts. If I am really good this year, can I have one for Christmas?

 I showed the Alpha Romeo Giulietta spider Bertone yesterday, but it is worth getting
another angle on it.

And finally for today, an overview. This will give you some idea of how big the show is.

There didn't appear to be quite so many interwar super stylish coupes this year, and there was far too many Porche 911s for my tastes. To my mind one is enough. Having said that, though, it's still a good way to spend a winter's day, and dream...

We Go!

The other week went went up to Paris to visit Retromobile. As I mentioned about a month ago, I had bought Ouigo tickets for 10€ each, one way from Saint Pierre des Corps to Paris.

Catching a Ouigo train is more complicated than a normal TGV as you have to be at the station early to check in, and you have to book space on the luggage rack (for 5€ extra, this is the low cost airline of train travel) for each suitcase other than cabin luggage. Tickets can only be bought online, but at the moment they are all 10€ per person each way.

The other difference between standard SNCF trains and Ouigo is that in the big cities they don't use the "normal" stations. When they started the limited services from Paris started at Disneyland, but now they also use the un-touristy end of Montparnasse station - Hall 3, which is where suburban services and trains to places like Chartres tend to leave from

Having said that, the service is good. The trains are modern, latest but one generation of TGV, and clean (if a little too aqua and hot pink inside and out), and the announcements are plentiful and intelligible. This was especially important as the train was late arriving at Saint Pierre des Corps, and travelled slowly and then stopped a couple of times once it did arrive. This wan't Ouigo's fault - it was extremely cold, and there were problems with snow and ice so all trains were delayed (except the ones that were cancelled).

We arrived in Paris 90 minutes late, but by the time we arrived at our apartment we have already been sent an email saying we would get a partical refund of our tickets.

We will take them up on that - 10€ to Paris is a exceptionally good deal, and now we have used the service we feel we have de-mystified it, and next time should be all confusion free.

Rétromobile 2013 Highlights

Last Friday we visited RetroMobile for the 4th year running

In contrast to previous years, this time we travelled up by train arriving mid afternoon, and left Paris again in the evening to come home. This allowed us enough time to see what we wanted to see, and stay for apéro at the Traction Universelle stand, but not so much  time that we got bored or over tired. We left home at 09:30 and were back just after 23:00.

These are 2 highlights from each of us:

Roland Garros' 1913 Bugatti Type18 "Black Bess"

 

Renault Type DG "Victoria Rothschild" 1913

Ferrari 250GT California 1961

And last but not least, a motorbike -

Vincent Black Shadow

More will follow...