Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Rolling through the streets of Paris...

It was a Dark and Stormy... um... morning.  Yes.  That was it.  We must, afterall, stay with the truth since there seems to be so little of it going around these days.  It was indeed dark.  It was indeed quite cold.  And it was very stormy.

la traversee de Paris ~ 2018

Another truth is that I've been going to the winter and summer traversee de Paris for going on five years now.  It was there that I learned about how Car Crazy the French can be.  Twice a year the Association Vincennes en Ancienne organizes a Grand Gathering of Car Crazy French and turns them loose on the streets of Paris.

As a spectator it's been a lot of fun watching as well north of six hundred old vehicles spread out around the city.  At key locations owners would park their cars so spectators like me can see them up close.  Vehicle owners generally enjoy a long conversation, too.

Tables are sometimes set up.  White table clothes are sometimes spread out.  Bread, cheese, and wine sometimes appear out of nowhere.  A Good Time is had by all.

This year, 2018, would be a little different.  A friend and I would participate by driving an oh so awfully French Car Of The People Citroen 2CV.  A state-side friend, Jim, calls these Tin Snails.  And if you'll recall, the Tin Snail is imbued with a reliable energy source that consists of two opposed cylinders of une Grande Capacite of around 600cc.  This compares rather well to a pre-war BMW motorcycle and goes one better by being fully enclosed to keep the rain off the attire.

la traversee de Paris ~ 2018

Up at 5:45am, showered, fed, out the door by 6:45am and into a waiting white Tin Snail.  Patrice, a friend of our's whom we met through a stateside friend with whom we swapped apartments during our last stay in the US, would be the Tin Snail's conductor.

A storm lay over us and it was making things miserable as we oozed our way to the Chateau de Vincennes.  Once there we found a well watered mud-hole to park the Tin Snail in.  She was flanked by many tasty voitures de collections.  Over here was a pretty Citroen SM (Sire Majeste).  Over there a pair of Ferrari TestaRossa.  And just behind the Ferraris sat several Ford Model A's of various styles.  Oh, and les bretons brought their tractors, too.

la traversee de Paris ~ 2018

As it was pissing rain, men lined up against the wall to the chateau moat and pissed themselves dry.  It would be a long day and a person needs to start off in the best possible condition.  By some magic unheard unseen signal the men dribbled one last dribble, zipped up, boarded our various conveyances and started toward the chateau exit.

It took nearly eight hours for the event to fully unroll.  Cars were lined up for miles around the city.  Because of the constant line of cars there was no need for une Voiture de Grande Vitesse.  600cc's of mighty reliable French power was sufficient.  Spectators stood, looked, ogled, and sometimes waved as all of us passed by.  The rain ended and the Tin Snail was able to slime its way around without spinning its tires nor operating it's wipers.

Patrice and I stopped for a quick bite to eat before he dropped me off at the front door.  The grin on my face must've told the entire story.  What a Great Day it had been.

la traversee de Paris ~ 2018