I mentionned in the last post that the La Chapelle trip had become the "almost final" story in the restoration Saga. While we were at La Chapelle we met a load of the people from Birchington, and it turns out they also have a "home leg" of the twinning celebrations, and this is taking place on 21st June. We are invited to this, so watch this space while we find out what this involves. I would be amazed if Birchington can oput on anything as big and as bonkers as the La Chapelle carnival weekend, but you never know......

We made it! The big one. The almost final act in what's been a fascinating and enjoyable project. (I say "almost", as the project just grew and extra aspect, but more of that later). We drive Mademoiselle and Andy's "Slough built" 1955 2CV down through Northern France to the car's town of birth to take part in the 20th Anniversary twinning celebrations.

What a fantastic weekend! Crazy, fun, bizarre, amazing, moving and delightful, challenging and elating all at once. We are welcomed in by our hosts and by the whole town with such hospitality - we are feted and treated like celebs, we are greeted by the Mayor (several times), applauded by the locals, invited to Civic Reception(s), to a show by school children and a gala cabaret night. They even insist that we lead the town carnival parade

The cars cause Universal delight - everybody seems to love a "deu' ch'vaux" (2CV). They've owned one, or their parents did, or they learned to drive on one, and they seem to hold a warm corner of their hearts reserved for 2CV's, so everywhere we go people seem delighted that these whacky british fans are bothering to restore them and bring them down to show them off.

The cars performed well, running the 100-odd kms down through St Omer to La Chapelle, and back again, so we are delighted. We also learned some bits about the cars, and one of the twinning committee has promised to advertise for any more info - who owned her and worked on her prior to 1989. What we learned was that.

1) The lion on the bonnet is not some random heraldic beastie - it is a "Lion de Flandres", symbol of the Flanders region since the time of Robert 3 of Flanders (1249-1322) (or something like - history never was my strong point) 

2) The idle mixture screw will slowly vibrate out till you have no idle.

3) The speedo does not work at all, but the wipers work very well.

But enough of that. Fantastic weekend all round.

Almost home - chugging gently up from Pluckley (Darling Buds Country) to Charing here, when Andy's good lady was struck by fields of bright yellow oilseed rape. This a pic of the car, with Andy (right) and myself, definitely enjoying ourselves and starting to believe she's actually going to make it home. What a brilliant day, for sure - 2 old ladies, less than 900 cc between them and more than 100 years (not including Andy's good lady, of course!)

More pics from the Journey Home

More pics from the car park

What a fantastic day! We are pleased to report that Mmle's "shake down" trial - the run from Blean to Hove Park to join up with the 2CV London to Brighton was a great success. The old girls (Mmle and Andy's Slough-built, both 400cc) both made it down the 83 miles or so in 3 hours, including stopping for some scenic photo's

When we got there we were told that a special parking place had been reserved as were were "old" and therefore honoured with a front row space. Mmle is not quite the pinnacle of oldness, a "ripple", but she does have drum brakes, the smaller engine and the windowless rear (C) pillar, and she is from November 1961.

"We" driving down were Andy in his Slough-built, plus his good lady. The Slough also performed well, but she is already tried and tested. While there, we met lots of nice epople who came up and introduced themselves, usually recognising the car from magazine articles etc.

At half past 3 we were on the way home again, keen to get back to the lock up before dark, and again Mmle did the business, by now loosening up a bit, so that the Slough was registering 50-55 on the speedo (Mmle's isn't connected up at present)

So, a brilliant exciting, satisfying day. Well done Mmle. You deserve a nice rest, now.

Building up slowly to our run to La Chapelle, and wishing to honour "Drive It" day, I decided to make a small run out from the lock up to Birchington. In bright sunshine, after leading a Bluebell Walk in Challock Forest for the "Friends of Kingswood", therefore I hot footed it to the lock up in the "normal 2CV". The old girl fired up first turn and never missed a beat all day.

We trundled down through Blean to the main road, stopped for fuel at Tesco, and the headed east along the A road towards Herne Bay. From there, there's a quick burst of Thanet Way before the turn off to Birchington. We ambled around stopping to take pics where ever I felt like, and were delighted to find the pub, the Sea View, which is in the 20 year old black and white pic featured on the front of the latest edition of the La Chapelle mag.

It was a shame that I'd not been able to raise anyone on the Twinning Committee to meet me there or get some official pics - surely useful for their website or newsletters?

A small adventure, then, for the first one, and now she's safey tucked up back in the lock-up under her cover. her next excitement is the 2CV London to Brighton (which is gonna take HOURS at max 40 mph!) and then it's the awesome La Chapelle run.  

Prior to our adventure, taking the old girl to La Chapelle (which has been met by great enthusiasm and excitement there, with locals offering us accommodation and saying they'll feed us and take us round), I thought it'd be a nice idea to take the car to Birchington, tomorrow being "Drive-It" day an' all.

What a difference? I have a number of email addresses for Birchington, and have sent them all an email saying would you like to meet the car before the adventure. But came there answer none (aplogies to Lewis Carroll).

Sooooo., Weather permitting, I will go anyway, and get myself some pics of the old girl at the Birchington sign or any other landmark. Might even park her in the town centre and see if anyone comes and says anything.

You'll know that we Restoration Team guys, finding that our old car was a twinning gift from La Chapelle d'Armentieres to Birchington, and the only thing we'd heard about Armentieres was the WW1 Tommy song "Mademoiselle from Armentieres", immediately named the car "Mademoiselle"

I posted on the 2CVGB site at the time (on a blog that sadly died in April 2008 with loss of all hands) a link to a 1920's music hall recording of the song, commenting that the rhymes in the lyric only worked if you were a British Tommy with no knowledge of French "Mademoiselle from Ah-mun-tears, hasn't been kissed for 50 years" etc and similar excruciating references to the "Croy duh Gear" (Croix de Guerre) for washing the General's Underwear, and so on.

Amusingly, as part of our prep for sending a small convoy of Brit-reg'd Citroens to La C d'A in May, we've been sent some tourist guide booklets from Armentieres listing accommodation. In same, there is an article about "Melle from Armentieres" (we've been spelling it Mmle) which I'll translate to the best of my ability.

"On the origins of the song, we have found an anecdote describing a time when an Officer in the English Army tried to make a "familiar gesture" to a waitress in the local cafe, the famous Marie Lecocq, who responded with a clout. An army Sargeant, "Red Rowland" (27 years old), observing the scene, was inspired to pen a few couplets. Mademoiselle from Armentieres symbolises the woman, irreplace-able companion of the man in moments of distress and disarray. At the time Red Rowland wrote just 3 verses - there are now over 120"

There is even a statue of Marie Lecocq in Armentieres, on Avenue Leo Legrange.

Something tells me we are just going to have to see it.  

Good News! We have working electrics. The short story is that the aul' girl spent the day at Square Deal Auto on Chislet Business Park (off the A28) and is now back home safe in her lock up with working electrics. I have no vested interest in Square Deal but can unreservedly reccommend them as a small company (Father and Son) who are just brilliant at diagnosing and fixing electrical problems on old cars.

The longer story would involve 2CV-Llew and I getting the car there under tow when we found her in the lock-up with an almost flat battery (and being tow-roped behind Llew at speed through country lanes and along the Thanet Way is a brown-underpants white knuckle ride). The work was done with a nice sequence of comforting "check up" calls by them to me confirming that this is what they'd found and was it alright to spend x.

Our original bodgerie had , in fact put some of our jointed wiring in the way of the fan, which had sliced through one wire causing a short (metal fan on these old cars) which had melted the voltage regulator. She is now largely re-wired in that area and has a new 6v (old Volkswagen) volt-reg'. The old guy tried to tell me all about negative pulsing and +ve wires from the field wiring connected to the +ve brush which looked all wrong but was in fact correct (see Lindsay Porter book for pics!) but that kind of stuff goes over my head.

And then, with her all fixed and paid for I had the fun of a drive home all down through Sturry and Herne back to Blean, where she lives. 40 mph flat out down the Thanet Way dual carriageway. Zzzzzzzz. Those cars are definitely more fitted to country lanes than motorways, aren't they? At least on the down-hills towards Blean you can look at 50 mph, bucketting over the lumps and bumps and potholes.

So, now we have a car with working electrics, all safe and snug and dry back in her lock up.  Thanks then to 2CV doctor, Llew, who gave up 2 (early) evenings, one to tow me down to Square Deal, one to follow me home then drive me back to Chislet to collect the "normal" car in which I'd driven there from work.

Relax