BTM ROAD RUN TO FRANCE – 12TH - 22ND AUGUST
‘Brooklanders’ took to the French countryside on a 10-day tour of the best of French auto museums on what turned out to be a 1,200 mile round trip – par excellence!
S The eclectic bunch of cars – and equally eclectic
group of passengers – included two Morgans, a BMW Z4, an Austin Healey 100/6, a Jaguar XK8, a ‘hot off the press’ new style Alfa Romeo Giulia and, I hardly dare mention, a Renault Meganne convertible. The weather was kind to us and all five convertibles generally went topless, even though this was northern France not the south! The first stop, for some to break the journey, was in Noyelles-Godault on the 12th, then we went on to Reims to be joined by the ‘Sunday travellers’ on the 13th for the start proper. This leg to Reims included a stop at La Coupole, St Omer to view Hitler’s giant, domed under- ground bunker housing the V2 rockets destined for London but fortunately ‘nobbled’ before the bunker became fully operational. Once in Reims, a trip round the magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral was a must and a precursor to a meal in a lovely restaurant overlooking the cathedral. Our first museum was the Musée Automobile Reims Champagne, which had an impressive display of over 200 cars and motorcycles from 1908 onwards with some magnificent Delahayes and other classic cars and bikes. We went to Dijon on 15th August for the visit to the second museum – at the beautiful Château
hades of The Magnificent Seven took place in mid-August when seven cars and 12
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Veteran beauty at the Schlumpf collection (Roger Greenwood).
de Savigny-les-Beaune. This was breathtaking, both in the architecture of the château and its vineyards as well as in the breadth of its auto collection which is a side function to wine production and conference facilities. The château houses a very rare collection of 35 prototype Abarths, some 250 classic motorcycles, straddle tractors, fire engines and, wondrously, in the grounds, 100 jet fighters – Migs, Dassaults, Phantoms and even an English Electric lightning! We went on to Mulhouse on 18th August for the main event at the third museum – Cité de l’Automobile – the Schlumpf collection. Nothing can prepare you for the much-reported but
Bugatti Type 35s from the 1925 Targo Florio (Roger Greenwood).
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