The journey

Wednesday, Aug 19 1998

After some phone calls on Wednesday morning, we agreed that the six of us would meet in Gerardmer (just across the Vosges in France) for our first overnight stop on the way up to Chevetogene. Christian and Regine, driving their bicolor cabriolet, yet had to look over an old Traction in Basle, while Gerhard and Monica could only start with their 15/6 later in the day. So it was up to Andreas and me, the rookie, to form the 'avant-garde' in the original sense of the word. I was a little worried about the clutch on my 1955 Légère, but a short testdrive by old hand Andreas showed no major problem. You just had to be careful that the car did not vibrate to much when putting in the first gear...

Andreas led the way in his beautiful grey 1936 Large, on to the motorway. At about 100km from lake Zurich, where we had started, we crossed the frontier in Basle and went on to Thann, where the road started to climb uphill. Keeping the necessary speed in second gear was quite a bit of a thrill, especially as we had to use the whole width of the road when doing right hand curves. Luckily, there wasn't too much traffic from above. But the couple of grannies in their brand new Megane Scenic were really a pain in the a.., well, actually, in the front.

Shortly before the summit of the 'Grand Ballon' (some 1400m altitude), we stopped for a liver saussage and a "hot goat" (chevre chaud, i.e hot goat cheese). Fortified by this snack we took to the road again, with some of the hikers and tourist waving or even clapping their hands as we whizzed past masses of dark fir trees down towards the lake of Gerardmer.

At around 5pm, we booked into a hotel and immediately began to download pictures from the digital camera, tested how they appeared in the browser etc. But there was no telephone connection we could use in the hotel (and eventually, we couldn't update our pages from Belgium either, due to lack of phones and phone-jack incompatibilities). In the town, we strolled past some souvenir shops and stalls, with Andreas always on the lookout for the odd Traction model. We had a couple of beers in front of a bar on the main access road into town ....we only had been there for about 30 minutes, when the Rallye-Traction and the great 15/6 appeared!

Dinner outside was quite chilly, compared to the hot weather of the past days. Monica was kind enough to lend me her pullover and I would hand it back to her every half hour. Gerhard and Christian entertained us with the most hair-raising stories. Gerhard and Monica have been running a prestigious limousine service for over 14 years, and I was surprised at the many VIPs they had served already. Christian's Rallye stories (he is the 2 times winner in class of the Monte Carlo Challenge) were none the less incredible, of course...

Thursday, Aug 20 1998

We had arranged with Gerhard and Monica to meet them in the morning on the roundabout close to their hotel, just going round and round. They chose another roundabout to perform this gag in...Andreas had to go and get them. We left by 10:30 eventually and took minor roads along the Mosel and the Meuse. The opportunity to take pictures was used by almost all of us, when we occupied all four lanes of a gas station somewhere along the way. The weather being fine and warm, I opened my front window and put the Joe Dassin cassette into my walkman...when all of a sudden we passed a stretch of road that was newly strewn with loose gravel - ouch, that hurt our Tractions! Next time I'll slow down, I only discovered the marks later. Well, that's what it's like being a Traction greenhorn!

Also, convoy driving has to be learned. You don't get very far when you're afraid to damage the car when overtaking. I was still somewhat frustrated when we crossed the Belgian border and stopped in Bouillon for that night (counting 540km since we left). If you ever get near this town, take a detour to see its magnificent 11th-century castle built on a river gooseneck. After all, this is where the castles proprietor, Knight Godefroy de Bouillon, started the First Crusade all the way down to the Holy Land!

We booked into not such a nice hotel within 10 minutes and were later dissappointed to find a couple of hotels that looked better from outside...but we spent almost an hour in choosing a restaurant. At long last, we settled for some moules and steaks. There was no bouillon on the menue, however...

Caspar Türler, August 1998

The party:

Christan and Monica



Gérard



Caspar



Regine

The Journey begins:

Caspar Türler and his 1955 Légère in front of the house where we began the journey.



The first stop encircled by lorries.



Parked for the night





Also Tractions need to be filled up





Shadow when the owners have lunch



Emergency stop!