Mustangs in Normandy
6/23/06, 03:05 PM
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Mustangs in Normandy
Another European Mustang trip…
This time a 850 mile roundtrip. Since the trip was organized by me and since I love France, that’s were the trip went. Normandy to be precise, a beautiful region in France. Perhaps hard to imagine for Americans that you can drive 400 miles, cross three countries (The Netherlands, Belgium and France) and end up in a country with an entirely different language, a different culture, different food, and so on. But that’s Europe!
Here’s a little map for orientation: in the top left you can see England and London, in the bottom middle you can see Paris, France. And the blue line indicates our route, off course.
Friday, at 7.30 am,14 Mustangs, one Buick Skylark and one VW Transporter gather on the Dutch/Belgian border. The Mustangs range from a 1965 Fastback to a 2006 Convertible. No Foxes as I decided to take the 1972 Grandé on this trip. The Skylark owner also has a 1965 Mustang but since that car gave some troubles, he took the Buick. And the VW Transporter came along as a you-never-know-with-these-old-cars service vehicle (and it came in handy!).
Just Motorways take us quickly into France, where we are glad to leave the Autoroute and proceed on scenic byways. We prove to be a real sight in every small village we pass. People smiling and waving almost everywhere. I discover that 4 of our cars are lost and heading a wrong direction. The stop in a village to instruct them on the way back makes the villagers stop all their activities…
Trouble after going down a long hill into a village: a beautiful 1965 Fastback loses its brakes. Yes, the old story, wrong braking technique and old brake fluid. Luckily with have all the tools and new brake fluid in the service VW, so after bleeding the brakes on the sidewalk we’re back on our way. To cross the Seine river (yes the Seine river, the same that also flows through Paris) on a ferry-boat. Not that there no bridges crossing the Seine (there are, you will see) but this old ferry is off course far more “touristic”. It holds just eight cars, so it takes some time to get all of the cars on the other side, but it’s a beautiful place to take a break.
Some 50 miles to do before we reach our goal, a camping site! All our tents are put up, a nice meal in the camping crêperie and sleep for all for us after a day full of driving.
Purely by coincidence (the camping site owner tells us) we stumble on a real French classic car meeting the next day. Including some really expensive and really old cars. We’re not allowed to park our Mustangs alongside, since this is a sort of rally with a lunch stop. A French lunch that is, so undoubtedly more than a sandwich
.
We continue to visit the Basilique Sainte Thérèse in Lisieux, very impressive!
To be continued in the next post, I've reached the maximum number of pictures..
This time a 850 mile roundtrip. Since the trip was organized by me and since I love France, that’s were the trip went. Normandy to be precise, a beautiful region in France. Perhaps hard to imagine for Americans that you can drive 400 miles, cross three countries (The Netherlands, Belgium and France) and end up in a country with an entirely different language, a different culture, different food, and so on. But that’s Europe!
Here’s a little map for orientation: in the top left you can see England and London, in the bottom middle you can see Paris, France. And the blue line indicates our route, off course.
Friday, at 7.30 am,14 Mustangs, one Buick Skylark and one VW Transporter gather on the Dutch/Belgian border. The Mustangs range from a 1965 Fastback to a 2006 Convertible. No Foxes as I decided to take the 1972 Grandé on this trip. The Skylark owner also has a 1965 Mustang but since that car gave some troubles, he took the Buick. And the VW Transporter came along as a you-never-know-with-these-old-cars service vehicle (and it came in handy!).
Just Motorways take us quickly into France, where we are glad to leave the Autoroute and proceed on scenic byways. We prove to be a real sight in every small village we pass. People smiling and waving almost everywhere. I discover that 4 of our cars are lost and heading a wrong direction. The stop in a village to instruct them on the way back makes the villagers stop all their activities…
Trouble after going down a long hill into a village: a beautiful 1965 Fastback loses its brakes. Yes, the old story, wrong braking technique and old brake fluid. Luckily with have all the tools and new brake fluid in the service VW, so after bleeding the brakes on the sidewalk we’re back on our way. To cross the Seine river (yes the Seine river, the same that also flows through Paris) on a ferry-boat. Not that there no bridges crossing the Seine (there are, you will see) but this old ferry is off course far more “touristic”. It holds just eight cars, so it takes some time to get all of the cars on the other side, but it’s a beautiful place to take a break.
Some 50 miles to do before we reach our goal, a camping site! All our tents are put up, a nice meal in the camping crêperie and sleep for all for us after a day full of driving.
Purely by coincidence (the camping site owner tells us) we stumble on a real French classic car meeting the next day. Including some really expensive and really old cars. We’re not allowed to park our Mustangs alongside, since this is a sort of rally with a lunch stop. A French lunch that is, so undoubtedly more than a sandwich
. We continue to visit the Basilique Sainte Thérèse in Lisieux, very impressive!
To be continued in the next post, I've reached the maximum number of pictures..
6/23/06, 03:10 PM
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We top it off with the former fishing village Honfleur. BBQ on the camping and the next day time to pack things and head back home. Crossing the Seine once again, but this time by means of the impressive Pont de Normandie. And ready to meet a Ford GT returning from Le Mans at a gas station…
Al in all, a perfect weekend! And my completely original, unrestored 1972 Grandé performed flawlessly!
We also have a 16 min. video:
http://mustangforum.marsdesigns.com/nor/Normandie.wmv
6/24/06, 03:10 PM
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Originally Posted by creedog
Beautiful pictures!!! Do you have any more of the stangs? Especially on the blue fastback, green fastback, '67 fastback, and it looks to be an orange Mach 1?
They're in these two series:
http://www.dmff.nl/Marc/nor/index.htm?1
http://www.dmff.nl/Marc/nor2/index.htm?1
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