Sunday 17 March 2013

Dit Bonjour à Claudette

Yesterday we trekked across the Brenne and the Sologne to pick up a sister for Célestine. After months of scouring LeBonCoin we have finally found another Traction Avant in the right condition for the right price. Her name is Claudette, and she is 3 years younger than Célestine.


Her motor and gearbox are in superb condition but she's not ready to take out with clients just yet. We've left her in the capable care of Doctor Traction over in Chateauroux. His first task is to sort out the brakes, which we have to admit do stop you amazingly well: they aim you into the ditch at the right hand side of the road. Next, the gear linkages need tweaking to allow a change from first gear to any other gear but reverse, and to stop her jumping out of second and third. Finally, there is some tinworm and problems with the doors, but we will send her to another specialist for that. Hopefully she'll be home and ready to start work in a couple of weeks time.

In the meantime, we need to buy new carpets for her, and find a garage somewhere near Tours so she and Célestine don't have to do so many kilometres. If anyone knows of a garage for rent in Veigné, Saint Avertin or Chambray lès Tours, please let us know.

15 comments:

Tim said...

Well done you two and...
"Bonjour Claudette!"

Your only difficulty now is going to be... which car to take to the TA members meetings.

GaynorB said...

Congratulations on your new addition to the 'family'. We hope the renovations go well and that you are successful in finding a new home for Celestine and Claudette.

We look forward to seeing Claudette in action.

Tim said...

Just a thought...
they look like twins...
how are we going to tell the difference and say "Hello" with the correct name?
They'll get awful upset otherwise!!

Colin and Elizabeth said...

She looks a beauty! The many hours searching has obviously been worth it! Well done.

SweetpeainFrance said...

Jolly Good...hope the girls take it in turns!

Niall & Antoinette said...

Well done you two! Bonjour Claudette :-) We wondered what she'd be called.
I'll ask round re garage when I'm in Tours.

Liselle said...

Yay! Wonderful news. I can see i'll have to now have to redo my profile pic with both ladies!

Simon said...

Tim - the difference is in the eyes: Célestine has yellow headlight, white fogs and white indicators. And although you can't see it, Claudette has gris-bleu wheels rather than ivory.

ladybird said...

Bienvenue Claudette! You're very pretty and you've found a very good home. Hope you and your sister Célestine will get along. She might be tempted to 'bouder' a little because she's nolonger an only child! :) Martine

Jean said...

Congratulations!
I should think it will be quite a relief to have a second car and a safety net for your bookings.
She's a beauty and I look forward to meeting her !!

Tim said...

And Susan will, of course, have a lot more "quiet time", wot wiv Simon having two cars to clean and polish!!

MargaretP said...

well done,hope the new Miss is everything you were looking for, she is beautiful.
Did they ever come in a convertable model ?....that would be FUN.

MargaretP said...

Don't forget to give the windscreen wipers a good test run :)

Simon said...

Margaret - been there, done that, Ambitious is the best I can say about the wipers!

Tim said...

Margaret, ALL elderly Citroens think that wiping the glass is best left to someone else...
at least ambitious sounds better than our '56 2CV...
and the Tractions do come in a convertible [cabriolet]...
but the hood is a pain I am led to understand...
by Simon...
and very expensive to replace!

Post a Comment