Spotted's Spottings (2025 France holiday #7 09/08/2025)

[Spottedlaurel]

40 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

RWD Master is a new one on me - as you say, I'd only previously seen RWD on the heavy-duty Iveco Daily-based versions.  Could be a 4x4 Dangel-style conversion I suppose.

Will take a look at my unedited photo to see if the stickers give any clue as to what it is.

[Spottedlaurel]

20 hours ago, wuvvum said:

I think these days when you re-register a car it's automatically issued with a new-style plate, even if it's staying within the same département.

RWD Master is a new one on me - as you say, I'd only previously seen RWD on the heavy-duty Iveco Daily-based versions.  Could be a 4x4 Dangel-style conversion I suppose.

I looked at the original photo and there was nothing immediately obvious. It'll have to remain a mystery, or maybe someday I'll see a similar one which will help work it out.

 

On the way home now, not really something to enjoy but at least finding more stuff livens up the journey a bit:

Have previously seen an Espero in France but never a Nexia.

 

 

These all at the same place, whether it was a repair/restoration specialist or just the premises of a collector I don't know. Shame I couldn't get a better shot of the CX, but pleasing to see three generations of big Citroen together.

Still looked to be used for work.

Tidy for an early-ish Mk3.

Funny to think this probably isn't very much older than the Transit, indeed possible that it is actually newer - Wikipedia says they remained in production until 1991.

Impressive lacquer peel.

 

These two at the same garage.

Another Millésime. Didn't realise at the time that le chat was watching me....

I'd seen this tidy 6 outside when we drove past on the way down, but didn't have time to stop. They also had a few other things.....

 

 

Not sure if it's a museum of sorts, one person's collection or storage for a group of enthusiasts, but there was certainly a good variety.

Looked solid for one of these.

Croma was the only thing of interest on the autoroute (on our side at least, I think there was a 504 and one or two others heading the opposite way).

 

 

Got slightly lost finding our way to the hotel, but if we hadn't have done I wouldn't have seen these.

That's it for 2024. Just over four weeks until this year's trip, heading quite a way down and staying within sight of Mont Ventoux. There was some good stuff to be seen last time we were down that way (2018), hopefully that'll still be the case this year.

[Spottedlaurel]

Having barely finished uploading last year's photos we're already back in France. Usually we do an overnight Newhaven-Dieppe crossing but that didn't work quite so well with timings and where we wanted to get to this year. Did an overnight stop outside Ashford then got an early AM tunnel crossing. scooted through the north as quickly as possible and stayed near Dijon with the eventual aim being to get to the Vaucluse area. Managed to get a bit of cross-country driving into the journey so there'll be some random stuff from on the way down plus whatever I find around Provence. Early indications are promising.

Anything seen on the way down to the ferry/tunnel counts as a holiday spot, this year it was just this one (I suspect I'll be seeing quite a few more). Also caught sight of a rather funky orange SAAB 99/900 4/5-door heading the other way on the A12.

 

Dutch holidaymakers provided the only things of note on the northern autoroutes, the motorhome was another Talbot/Peugeot/Fiat/Citroen. The A26 down to Troyes was a pleasure, more than can be said of the A6/A7 further south....

At Troyes we turned off the autoroute and headed cross-country to Dijon, through attractive countryside which followed the Seine for much of the way. This odd-panel 2CV was an approriate first proper French spot.

Presumably a DAF, for some reason I want to say 2800.

An interesting thing here, looks to be a "Production" special edition, 1 of 300 built to celebrate the GTV's success in production car racing.

Seem to be doing slightly better on Patrols than Land Cruisers so far this year.

 

A little battle-scarred but doing well for approaching 40 years old. Also saw a facelift model on a driveway but not yet managed to get a photo of one.

This batch feels like a good way to finish for now......

 

 

 

All these at the same garage. Particularly good to see the Simca and Talbot pair (after seeing a tidy 1301/1501 on the move earlier in the day). XM a brave purchase at that price with no test?

More to come another day.

[Spottedlaurel]

A few more....

On German plates, not in an obviously touristy area.

First Land Cruiser, doubtless there will be more.

Took a very obscure route on small roads around DIjon and found this, first I've seen out in the wild for a few years.

At least three dead XMs here plus some sort of Amercican (GM?) pickup.

Master SL saw this on the forecourt of a small Renault dealership/agency. An automatic too.

This sounded great, and fair play to him for having all the family on board.

This oddity brightened up the journy in slow traffic on the southern autoroutes.

Not just an AX, but an AX Ten. Yet another special edition which appears to differ very little from all of the others. Did look tidy. Have seen a few other AXs in everyday use.

[Spottedlaurel]

Finally getting near to our holiday accommodation on the Saturday, found this field full of good stuff:

A very significant tick on the Renault bingo card, a 7! Taunus also good to see, and rusty H-van almost an inevitability.

Looks like a GL?

Tidy pre-facelift 305.

Chambord, which was apparently top of the Simca big car range above Vedette and Beaulieu.

Autobianchi? Also possibly a Visa rather than C15 alongside it.

As can be seen from the background of the above photos they had quite a collection of C15s. The STreetview shot from 2019 shows nothing here at all, so they've done quite well to amass such a collection over the last few years.

Final one for the Saturday, a timework but reatively tidy Corsa Viva.

Looks like a 30, one of the more attractive special editions.

 

Heading out to a local car meet we saw other old things out and about, the 404 was particularly nice.

[Spottedlaurel]

I'll leave what was at the meet/show for the moment and continue with the other stuff.....

Still a few of these in use.

This place had a load of old agricultural stuff alongside what I think is a Saviem Galion, in the classic blue of on an old French commercial vehicle.

VItaras still seem to be moderately popular as a smaller 4wd.

Another Viva edition Corsa, looking a little battered.

Master SL managed to get a shot of this one, a relative rarity in France in my experience. Hoped it was heading to the car meet, like the KG further back, but sadly not.

As on previous trips I seem to be seeing more Hondas than other older Japanese cars.

Looks like a 4x4, seemingly for sale but didn't notice the price.

Can't recall seeing any 75s or R8 200/400s yet.

Saw a similar Nissan D21 pickup a day or two later, and an old-ish Hilux too.

Surely restored to be in this condition? Great colour, and seems to belong to a local as I've seen it parked elsewhere in the village.

See, another older Honda. And another of those Renault vans.

Final one for now, this 190 looked tidy.

[mk2_craig]

That 4 is just perfect, not excessively tarted up or otherwise “quatrelle scene customised” like a lot of them seem to be now. The other spots are great too, I think that Talbot fourgonnette is my favourite. 

[Spottedlaurel]

42 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

That 4 is just perfect, not excessively tarted up or otherwise “quatrelle scene customised” like a lot of them seem to be now. The other spots are great too, I think that Talbot fourgonnette is my favourite. 

I think I got my best find of 2025 the other day, but I still have just over a week to go so who knows what else there'll be?

Also we hopefully have another monthly car meet to attend tomorrow, but that's cheating.....

[Sigmund Fraud]

On 01/08/2025 at 08:26, Spottedlaurel said:

F

Autobianchi? Also possibly a Visa rather than C15 alongside it.

It's a Trabant 500 (or 600), the predecessor of the boxier 601 that we all know about.

[Spottedlaurel]

8 hours ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

It's a Trabant 500 (or 600), the predecessor of the boxier 601 that we all know about.

Aha, thank you.

[Spottedlaurel]

I'm well into the second week of holiday here now, still finding amazing/surprising stuff plus older bilge still in apparent regular use.....

 

 

These at a brocante which I presume was once the village garage. 

Only Cavalier-type Vectra seen so far.

Wheel-less pre-facelift 305.

These certainly less common than Land Cruiser/Patrol GR/Pajero.

Still lots of lower-spec 205s around, I liked the colour and wheel trims on this one.

Nice Aerodeck, this one a 1.5i LS.

0/10 for colour-matching.

100NX! Not sure if the Mosaik stickers signified a special edition.

This was hiding at the back of a rather large market. I suspect there would have been a few older vans to be seen, but it was incrediby busy.

This Junior looked to be well-kept.

Swiss tourists with a purposeful thing, another of those lower-spec models we didn't see in the UK.

A few of these seen, almost always modified.

More to come another day.

[danthecapriman]

That Dodge RAM pickup is gorgeous! Nice to see one that hasn’t been ‘scened’ with big ugly wheels and tat stuck to it. Nice colour too.

Edit; It actually looks like the old US Forestry livery.

[wuvvum]

On 02/08/2025 at 09:51, Spottedlaurel said:

I'll leave what was at the meet/show for the moment and continue with the other stuff.....

This place had a load of old agricultural stuff alongside what I think is a Saviem Galion, in the classic blue of on an old French commercial vehicle.

Galion or Goélette, depending on the GVW I think (I never quite worked out the difference).

There's one of the latter for sale on eBay at the moment:

[Spottedlaurel]

1 hour ago, wuvvum said:

Galion or Goélette, depending on the GVW I think (I never quite worked out the difference).

There's one of the latter for sale on eBay at the moment:

Wikipedia says Goélette is the lighter weight version, and what became the Galion is the heavyweight model. A little bit of the badge has disappeared on 'mine', but there's enough to work out that it is the Galion, and also that it has bigger wheels.

What I couldn't work out is when they stopped being Renault and became Saviem, I think the Galion badging means the latter. 

[Snipes]

It'll be a sad day when the last French 205 is bean canned. 

[Surface Rust]

On 01/08/2025 at 08:26, Spottedlaurel said:

 

Chambord, which was apparently top of the Simca big car range above Vedette and Beaulieu.

That Chambord is fabulous, never heard of them before. 

I was hoping it would be fantastically underpowered from a wheezy rattly 4 cylinder to suppress my longing, but apparently it came with a Ford V8. I really want one now, looking just like that!

Have you got recommendations for finding local car shows in France? I got a week's holiday in the Jura coming up and it would break up the tedium of beer and BBQs! I don't use Facebook.

[Spottedlaurel]

1 hour ago, Snipes said:

It'll be a sad day when the last French 205 is bean canned. 

I reckon we'll be continuing to have holidays here like we are now for the next 10 years or so, I'd like to think they'll still be a reasonably common sight for that long at least and maybe move towards the status that the Renault 4 and 2CV have.

59 minutes ago, Surface Rust said:

That Chambord is fabulous, never heard of them before. 

I was hoping it would be fantastically underpowered from a wheezy rattly 4 cylinder to suppress my longing, but apparently it came with a Ford V8. I really want one now, looking just like that!

Have you got recommendations for finding local car shows in France? I got a week's holiday in the Jura coming up and it would break up the tedium of beer and BBQs! I don't use Facebook.

Apparently there is a lesser version with the Aronde's 4-cyl engine. I also have photos of a nice Beaulieu seen at one of the meets we attended.

The owner of the place we're staying gave us details of the first two events, the last one was then a recommendation from someone who was English (or at least spoke it very well) who came and had a chat with us. They seem to be monthly meets hosted by a local club, staggered over different weekends within a certain area so they don't clash too much. Pretty much 9-12 on a Sunday morning rather than an all-day show - I remember stumbling across the remnants of one in the early afternoon a few years ago.

There was a much bigger weekend-long affair we went to a couple of years ago complete with autojumble, we found that one after looking for local vide greniers (boot sales).

[wuvvum]

4 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

I was hoping it would be fantastically underpowered from a wheezy rattly 4 cylinder to suppress my longing, but apparently it came with a Ford V8. I really want one now, looking just like that!

It's not quite a Ford V8.  It's basically the same engine, but with every single fastener changed from imperial to metric, so most parts are not interchangeable.

[Sigmund Fraud]

6 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

It's not quite a Ford V8.  It's basically the same engine, but with every single fastener changed from imperial to metric, so most parts are not interchangeable.

Indeed.

It also is not the Ford V8 it should have been, i.e. the 4-litre OHV one that was used in contemporary land yachts. It is a 2.4-litre version of the ancient Ford sidevalve V8 as seen in Model Bs, with a rather unimpressive output of 75HP or thereabouts.

[AnthonyG]

Don’t all those large Simca’s have ancestry in a shortlived postwar French outpost of Ford? Seem to remember reading that Ford sunk a load of money into the original Vedette in the late 40s then bailed shortly after it was launched.

Simca took over the designs and ran them to about 1960.

[Spottedlaurel]

Interesting Simca chat. They do seem to be an oddly out of place car in France, so completely different from the Traction Avant/DS of the time. Didn't realise there was also an estate version badged as Marly, I've certainly never seen one of them.

I'm going to kick off this batch with what I'm boldly going to claim as my find of 2025, even with a few days still to go:

Cedric! Seemed to be the 2.8 diesel version (we had the smooth 3-litre V6 petrol, badged as 300C). Seemed to be in use, or at least mobile, as when we drove past a few days later it had moved position. @lesapandre do you still have yours?

Battered local Corolla also a diesel.

Looks to have led a hard life, the owner needs to pay a visit to that yard full of them that I found. Slightly notable for being a single rear door model.

 

I don't recall seeing a decapotable version of the Traction Avant before, proportions a little odd? Shame it had suffered a bit of damage to the rear end.

Looks like an ex-livestock carrier doing the usual food van thing.

Sadly no other Carina Es seen (yet?), but have managed a couple of Avensises/Avensii.

Belgian Mehari #1.

At least the second Impreza seen this year.

TR5 looked good in this colour, makes a change from the usual red or BRG.

Very tidy 2CV, seeing more of them than Renault 4s.

Belgian Mehari #2.

A lot of Belgians (and Dutch) visiting this area.

Modified V6.

That'll do for now. Super sunny day here and the wind has finally dropped, Mont Ventoux beckons after looking at it for the last week-and-a-half.

[bunglebus]

I wish I'd got my hands on the Renault Extra van I was offered, my 5 was great fun

[loserone]

11 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I wish I'd got my hands on the Renault Extra van I was offered, my 5 was great fun

An express is pretty cheap in France, can recommend.

[Spottedlaurel]

C15 news: Looks like the owner has found a replacement bumper and when seen yesterday it looked a little more intact than in my photo above.

Probably the last update I'll manage whilst still in France.....

Always seems a little exotic to see things that we don't get at home.

Dream! Have seen the odd next-gen version, this one the only Mk2 Astra type.

Was just about to wander across and get photos when the owner returned, so had to make do with this action shot instead.

Uno wasn't there at the start of the holiday, hopefully it's awaiting a new window and will see the road again.

Have seen at least one other M2 Golf, and a few Mk3s.

Tidy for an '80s Japanese 4wd.

400-series definitely not a common sight.

Haven't seen as many of these as previous years.

Jeans Beetle, should have looked to see if the interior was still intact.

This shot taken on full zoom from an old abbey on a hill. Couldn't immediately tell what it was, at first I wondered maybe CF.

Owner clearly not wanting to pick up a car park ding, using four spaces in the quietest corner of the car park.

Another modified Civic.

That's it for now. Next update to come at a time and place I don't really want to think about yet.

[bunglebus]

31 minutes ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Next update to come at a time and place I don't really want to think about yet.

Calais *shudder*

Lovely Jeans Beetle, looks like the same spec we got here, other countries had different versions in other colours.

Pickup is an Iveco, not the Alfa version!