The end of July means only one thing for a number three wheeler and motorcycle riders... Grand Prix Retro. The event takes place in the lovely historic town of Le Puy Notre Dame (France). The weekend consists of a rally on the Saturday with a jolly round the French countryside, followed by some night racing.... sorry demonstration racing round the town. Then the weekend is topped off with a day of racing in the town on the Sunday. For more information on this event please visit the website:
www.grandprixretro-puynotredame.com
We attended the event for the second time with our son Noah, who had a specially fitted seat in the Morgan Family, which meant that I was downgraded to the back seat. Which on the up side gave me a better view of the French countryside.
Noah testing his seat out whilst eyeing up the gearstick, whilst mother reaquaints hersefl with the controls.
Before arriving at Le Puy Notre Dame we spent some time at a friends farmhouse in Normandy where we acquainted ourselves with various machines, and a French Summer Lifestyle.
Mr Mattey's Super Sports undergoing a bit of the old fettling.
Machine of the holiday, the faithful old Cymota resting against the farmhouse between rides.
Noah giving the horn a good test.
Once we finally arrived at Le Puy the cars were unloaded and we relaxed before the rally the next day.
An early start and some light exercise before starting the rally..
Unfortunately we hit a problem just before hitting the start line...
Lots of steam and water coming from the exhaust pipe could only mean one thing....
...a blown head gasket
No matter, after a bit of cursing the team set to work cleaning up and getting one of the 15 head gaskets back on.
Whilst waiting for the engine to cool down we paroused the alway great line up of bikes that attend the event. This AJS had a blanked off exhaust which was a common modification in the 30s.
Mr. Coste's Chevrolet Morgan hauler.
Ready for the off with appropriate footwear.
After a touch of fettling the family was back up and running. We made it to the lunch stop before a lot of people, by using a short cut.
A Great little Terrot
Sunday saw the paddock filled with fantastic machines and a great day of racing.
Monet Goyon
(désolé pour le cycliste que j'ai perdu le bout de papier avec les informations moto sur elle. Pouvez-vous m'envoyer les détails planifions si vous lisez ce mrtnsquires@googlemail.com.)
(digitally painted ink sketch)
My one and only sketch fro the weekend was this fantastic Monet Goyon, well I was on holiday but you can never keep a serial sketcher down.
Unfortunately this Monet Goyon met with some sort of bending accident.
The posh hotel in town with a very smart Bugatti 57 on the left.
