Holidays in France

[malcolm]

A few of us had a Renault 4 holiday over the last couple of weeks. Bluebell and Kangarookris joined myself and Frederick for a trip to Ian Stanbury's place on the West coast of France. The deal was we'd swap the good mechanicals from his French spares car onto his UK car, and in exchange have a free stay at the Moulin Bodin.

Here's the work in progress. We ended up swapping everything apart form the rear suspension unit between the 2 cars. The low mileage French car had a lot of great bits, but a bad body shell.

Ian took us out to La Rochelle and the Ile de Re (posh tourist areas, thankfully off-season when we visited) and funded lunch and coffee.

La Rochelle was a walled city, but the English kept invading and took the place over for some time. In the end [SIZE=-1]Cardinal Richelieu[/SIZE] knocked all the walls down to make the place trickier for the English to defend. Seems to have worked to some extent, athough we didn't have any difficulty getting in.

We'd driven over in Ermintrude. Not so much because she's an excellent trans-European tourer, more because she was the only car we could come up with that had 4 seats. She did well on the trip but the bright yellow didn't really fit in with all those stayed off-white French R4s.

There were a surprising number of R4s still out there, mayabe still 1 in 100 cars in the countryside were 4s, and it's encouraging that the locals seem to be putting some effort into keeping them going.

The cottage was lovely, but I didn't take any photos. There are plenty on Ian and Kate's website - the Moulin Bodin

 

[claude van rouge]

Ermintrude takes her life in her hands to prove that R4's can walk on water - others soon follow as seen in Clementine's post above.

 

[pinkpenguindog]

Mrs PPD and I counted 31 R4s on our late summer trip to the Ile de Re ... and a Plein Air in La Rochelle!

 

[ian Stanbury]

..A big thank you...

.....and I would like to say a huge thank you to Clementine, Bluebell, Kangarookris and Frederick for making 'dismantling' and 'mantling' (?) 2 old R4's so much fun - well it was for me as every time we found a rough old bit needing replacement, the old Parisenne R4 always came up trumps with what she had to offer. If not and a left handed skyhook was required, Clementine and Frederick would head off to the 'stores' and there in the draw marked L for ' left handed skyhook' would be what was required - quite remarkable!!

We all had a lovely week - including Clementine who after a lot of cajoling finally agreed to let Frederick take a pot shot at her from 20 metres with his bow and arrow and blow me, look how accurate he was!!!

So thanks again to one and all - you are all Superstars and as WC Fields almost had written on his gravestone, 'I would rather be at Le Moulin Bodin than in Philadelphia'

ps - No one has mentioned the boat in the picture - A 20 year old Renault 4 and a 100 year old Thames single rowing skiff - What a combination!!

Ian S

 

[malcolm]

Is there a CD for the first person to guess what we needed the left handed skyhook for?

 

[ian Stanbury]

...Left handed skyhook...

...Most definitely, yes, but they must make it clear why it had to be a left handed one, as opposed to a straight treaded or right handed skyhook?

As you know we also had to use a couple of Piecosts for the drive shaft replacement - They of course were in the draw marked P.

More tea Vicar?

 

[claude van rouge]

Clementine, Ian

That's Kangookris (like the Renault van) not Kangarookris (like the marsupial)

Chris

 

[ian Stanbury]

..sorry Chris...

..Sorry chris, how could I make such a typo. By the way I saw this photo of you on the front cover of last week's Rolling Stone after your recent LA concerts - I had almost forgot about your rock career - move over Lynyrd Skynyrd!!!

By the way, you are very clever with digital photos - How do you do it?

Rock and roll!!!

Brian (May)

 

[Bluebell]

Clementine and Frederick would like to say....

:clementi: Clementine and :mrgreen: Frederick are a little peeved that some of you doubt that a furry cat and a frog can do such a lot of work on Ian's R4s in well under a fortnight. Luckily I've just been to Boots and fetched my photos so I've got proof that they did, in fact, work very very hard.

Here they are. First they had to check the Haynes Manual for the best way to tackle the job. Clementine holds up the car for Frederick to take off the suspension, then both are using all their ingenuity and a large beam to swop the engines. Frederick will post an item later showing full details of how they transferred the engine, suspension and lots of other bits and pieces from one car to the other. I told them it would have been easier to swop the bodies. What do you think?

 

[Bluebell]

All work and no play...

Although Frederick would dismantle and mantle from dawn to dusk if he could, Clementine would like to point out that it wasn't all work and no play at the Moulin Boudin. Here are some more relaxing moments in Fred and Clem's French holiday -