Gréoux-les-Bains 7th - 14th of June
Every year the international Bugatti scene has their big get
together, apart from various national rallies and meetings the
International Meeting is always the highlight of the season. In
annual exchange the national clubs organize a one week rally
showing the beauty of their country on proper roads suited for the
wide range of race and production cars for the marque from
Molsheim.
After the 50th anniversary meeting in Scotland and last year’s
meeting in Germany it was the French Bugatti Club to bring the
cars back to their home soil. Eight years after the last French
meeting in Corsica it was the southern region of the mainland to
be stage for 6 exceptional days at the “Coeur de la Provence”
(Heart of the Provence). Now, 5 weeks and several events later we
found the time to have a closer look back on this year’s rally with
galleries from every single day showing all the attending cars in
action.
Today the classic car calendar features hundreds of different
events ranging from social events, show events, race events and
road rallies, most of them restricted to certain ages depending on
the name giving historical event, the international collectors have
numerous choices to spend their limited spare time with their
toys. What most of them have in common is that they joined a
marque club years ago the get access to the knowledge of
specialists and likeminded connoisseurs of specific models they
own and they are interested in. Apart from the exchange of
experience some clubs are more active than others and the
Bugatti Club was always a real drivers club as one can see having
an own hill climb in England for example. So it is no surprise that
the International Bugatti Meeting is more a drivers meeting than
many other meetings and this year was certainly not an
exception. Limited to about 100 hundred cars to suit the
accommodations the IBM was booked well in advance and the
organizers even had the thankless task to refuse some requests
but on the other hand it gave them the possibility to put together
an entry list according the intended itinerary. When looking over
the program of the following days a total of about 1500 km within
6 days did not look that much but after seeing the cars arriving on
Sunday at the Domaine the Chateau Chaval in Gréoux-les-Bains
it became clear that the roads would become very adventurous as
just very few of the larger touring cars of the Type 46, 49, 50 or 57
found their way to the Provence, the main share was reserved to
the very agile Grand Prix car and the small Type Brescia. In the
next days the entrants would not just face small and twisty
country roads but some small village passages of not much more
than 2 meters wide.
The parking lot of the hotel filled over the Sunday afternoon, many
trailers from long distance entrants were unloaded, small groups
set together chatting about the time since the last meeting, minor
repairs were done with joined forces indicating the strong
solidarity that should also be seen the following days as soon as
a car stood road side and needed assistance. As the weather
was way too hot for June (locals indicated that the lavender was
three weeks early showing the continuing heat period) the main
concern had been the cooling and the electrics with the expected
thunderstorms in the evenings after a hot day. But as most of the
drivers are long time owners with a lot of experience in their car
there were little worries that they might not make it over the
distance.
Day 1 ... Monday - Les Villages du Luberon
The first day led west early in the morning in perfect sunshine
towards the region of the national parc of the Luberon, the
mountain chain south-east of Avignon. The Luberon region is
known for its wine, the agriculture and certainly the lavender
making this the region one usually associate when talking about
the Provence. Small villages along the small country roads had to
be passed that morning and very much to the liking of the author
the first stop of the day was at Cucuron, a small village at the
bottom of the Grand Luberon where he spent many years of his
childhood family vacations. Not much has changed since these
times and the Bar de l´Etang at the fire service lake in the heart of
the village invited to have a cup of coffee in the shadow of the
surrounding trees. After the short break the route continued to
Lourmarin that is just as the turning point in Gordes named “Plus
beau villages de France” as one of the prettiest villages in France.
After passing the nearby castle the Bugatti took a small loop
through the pedestrian area of the village to experience the local
mentality after coming to an unexpected stop behind a deliverer
who did not get himself worked up despite the cue waiting for him.
Some drivers used the waiting for another coffee or replied to the
many question of the curious locals and vacationers. Finally the
journey led to Gordes, a touristy mountain village overlooking the
entire Luberon region. The cars were prominently parked at the
town centre and the lunch was taken at one of the small
restaurants. As the organizers were keen on keeping the group
together they had to restrain those usually well running in front of
the field and the time could be used for exploring the village.
Finally the cars were back on the road just to face the first rain
shower of the week in the afternoon on the way back to
Gréoux-les-Bains were the cars were lined-up at the town hall and
the parking near the restaurant. With seven evenings to spend the
dinner was not always served at the hotel but most of the time
outside having the advantage of being varying but the cars had to
be driven at night back to the hotel, on Monday unfortunately in
the wet.
Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
Chassis numbers compiled with the help of the Bugatti Register
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