Angouleme

The Natter that Matters has it's own philosophy designed for those who may not like to be too organised. Set a place and time and invite anyone to attend and to get there how they like by making their own arrangements. So John Ponting suggested the place, Angouleme, and the time, happily coinciding with the annual Circuit des Remparts - a weekend of classic car heaven including classic racing through the streets of this old town. We usually suggest a hotel and this year it was the Ibis on the outskirts of Angouleme. Around ten crews made their way down - some leaving it to the last minute and others making a touring holiday of it and spending several days to get there and back. One or two joined together and drove down in small groups and raced back to the ferry afterwards. All in the spirit if the event.

Arriving on Friday evening in Angouleme the rain had already begun and it was to be the major feature of the following day as well. It got so damp as we stood in the rain in the car park of the Geant supermarket to watch the cars officially entered in the Rallye Charente be flagged away that a couple of us had to buy another pair of shoes to keep dry - wellies and umbrellas were the order of the day. Nonetheless a huge selection of classics set off with water beading on their highly polished bodywork. As the crews set off on a circular tour out to Cognac and back the MGF group split into two with the majority heading off to an abandoned wartime village now preserved as a museum and others heading off in search of Brandy - or to be more precise cognac in Cognac and a visit to the Hennesey brewery. With one section experiencing the sobriety  of the war the others were at the opposite extreme tippling samples of finest cognac. Both groups headed back to Angouleme for the afternoon as the rally cars returned to the town , a couple of us tagged on to the end of the rally in the hills of the Charente region and follwoed them right to the finish point , something that many other interesting cars seemed to be doing as well !

Saturday night was the actual natter and Tim had spotted a restaurant nearby with not one but two Octagonal dining rooms so Simon was dispatched to make a booking and we all turned up , in the rain, to the warming wood burning stove of the Restaurant du Bois. AS with last years events we had awards for collecting things en route with Stu Dickens collecting his award for most chips on the front of an F (as all the bugs had been washed off in the rain !) and Mike Hall picked up the prize for tackiest snow globe. Tim won the dullest postcard prize with a pencil drawing of a station (albeit by Monet) and the longest place name award.  With the heat rising and steaks consumed we were quite glad to head back in the rain to the Ibis.

Next day we were up bright and early to find that it was misty and damp and cold. Some set off early into town to park up and get in position for the day's racing whilst others enjoyed their breakfast a little longer. Just as well as within a couple of hours the sun had forced its way through the fog and it looked like it was going to be a nice day for classic car racing in the streets of Angouleme.

And so it turned out with a splendid and evocative day viewing the old cars amongst the packed streets - not only in the official paddocks but classic were parked everywhere in the centre and cafes overflowing with enthusiasts. A great atmosphere as the whole town is taken over by Classic Car fans. I'm struggling to think of a city centre in the UK that would dream of allowing this sort of thing to go on in it's ancient narrow streets !

Exhausted after viewing all the Bugattis and Lagondas and Ford Cortinas we headed back to the Ibis for our last night together where we were joined by local ex pat resident Barry Goodman in his F. Next day a small group set off along the autoroute towards Le Mans with cars dropping off to extend their stay or go a different way back all in the spriit of the Natter that Matters.

Words and Pics Tim Morris