As you’ve perhaps seen in another thread, 83man & myself have just returned from a fantastic trip to France. We were a party of six - five old blokes… & keeping us in some semblance of order, 83man’s wife, Carol.
One of our group owns a property about 25 miles from Le Mans, & we stayed at his house for a couple of days either side of the main purpose of the visit - 4 days in environs of the city of Angouleme, in the Charante region ie Bordeaux/Cognac/Perigeaux area.
For the last 70 years (apart from a break during WW2), Angouleme has hosted a motorsport event - the highlight being a day of spectacular racing through the streets of the ancient beautiful city (how it came to be twinned with Bury was a mystery to us all). Although obviously a French event, it is nonetheless traditionally extremely well attended by Brits � both competing & spectating. The event has 3 distinct aspects - a Concours on Friday evening, a road rally during Saturday, & then racing on Sunday. 83man had previously been to Angouleme in his capacity of “top dog” at the VSCCC, & our friend David, with the house in France, had actually won the Concours twice - firstly with a “Blower Bentley”, & latterly with a Bugatti. In other words, us Angouleme virgins were most fortunate to have a couple of expert guides to show us the ropes.
We were blessed with fantastic weather throughout the trip � it was just as you would imagine a couple of perfect July weeks in the UK would be � sunny & warm, but not too hot ie 20c to 24c. We stayed about 25 miles from Angouleme in Aubetterre Sur Dronne � a picturesque medieval village. Our hotel was a �hotel gastronomique�, & as you can imagine the food was out of this world. RussT, Martin Edwards, 83man & myself had in fact spent a couple of days there in 2006, prior to attending the Le Mans Classic, after 83man had discovered it a year earlier whilst planning an official VSCC trip to Angouleme.
We spent Friday in Angouleme, finding our bearings & watching the paddock filling up, whilst taking in the atmosphere of the build up, & having a quick nosey at the concours event in the evening. Saturday was spent travelling through the Cognac area watching the participants in the road rally. We arrived at the �circuit� early doors on Sunday morning, & didn�t leave until about 9.30pm.
Anyway, that�s enough waffling. I�ve got loads of photos to sort, & will post them up as soon as I�m able, but in the meantime, the following short video clips should give you a flavour of what our trip was all about.
These are videos of the �Alfa Romeo� demonstration � note, these guys were not officially racing…,.I kid you not!!! We all agreed it was probably the best �demonstration� we�d ever seen.
[video:youtube]MAH02057 - YouTube [/video]
[video:youtube]MAH02056 - YouTube [/video]
The Angouleme event is most famous for the incredible number of Bugattis which race there each year. These are truly beautiful cars, & in some ways priceless, but for arguments sake, let�s just say that you wouldn�t get change out of a �1m for one these!
[video:youtube]MAH02161 - YouTube [/video]
[video:youtube]MAH02132 - YouTube [/video]
[video:youtube]MAH02160 - YouTube [/video]
He might look like an old chuffer, but this old boy in collar & tie was having a great time, & he didn�t hang around either with his very smooth driving style!
[video:youtube]MAH02306 - YouTube [/video]
Brilliant Rob…Will this be an Exiges outing next year???
Love the power slides …better get narrow tyres fitted to the orange beast.
[quote=MrBean]Will this be an Exiges outing next year???
. [/quote]
If there is genuinely enough interest them I’m sure we could sort something out with a hotel stop on the way down and on the way back…
![http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Exiges/Angouleme%20Sept%202010/DSC01713.jpg[/IMG]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Exiges/Angouleme%20Sept%202010/DSC01713.jpg%5B/IMG%5D){kind=link}