Shite Spotting Cycle Ride Through Middle of Nowhere, France - Completed it M80

[N Dentressangle]

It always strikes me how very quiet and abandoned much of rural France seems to be. The towns, although once prosperous enough, all seem very down on their luck. We stayed in one in Brittany a few years ago, and it was dead in the evenings, with nothing at all to do. I know much of the UK suffers problems of poverty and a lack of employment, but it rarely seems as dead as some of the places you drift through in France. Odd.

[Schaefft]

Last stop near Montpellier for us today, we'll stay around here for 3 nights. A very built up tourist area, if you are somewhat interested in modernist architecture this is a 70s/80s utopian holiday paradise spreading for miles along the coast.

Somewhat nostalgic for me as nothing has changed compared to the holiday resorts I remember from being a child (albeit in Greece). A complete contrast from just a few days ago, adding even more variety to our stays during this trip.

First few images are still from Aigues-Mortes, from the top of the medieval city walls.

[N Dentressangle]

La Grande Motte?

[Schaefft]

10 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

La Grande Motte?

Exactly! Although we've only cycled through there to get to our Airbnb in Carnon. Close enough to Montpellier to cycle into town on the day we leave.

[hairnet]

mondeo of lol

nice master

505 oof 

[urpert]

1 hour ago, Schaefft said:

Exactly! Although we've only cycled through there to get to our Airbnb in Carnon. Close enough to Montpellier to cycle into town on the day we leave.

Looks awesome. Like a matte painted backdrop from a Star Trek establishing shot:

[mk2_craig]

Just piping up here to say, Toyota Tercel, holy shit. What a spot man. Nice Renner Master too, great to see this sort of stuff still kicking about in France.

[lesapandre]

15 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

It always strikes me how very quiet and abandoned much of rural France seems to be. The towns, although once prosperous enough, all seem very down on their luck. We stayed in one in Brittany a few years ago, and it was dead in the evenings, with nothing at all to do. I know much of the UK suffers problems of poverty and a lack of employment, but it rarely seems as dead as some of the places you drift through in France. Odd.

Certainly depopulation continues across rural France - with the amalgamation of small farms and loss of rural jobs.

Couple that to the continuing expansion of the road network bypassing a lot of smaller places - and the closure of traditional industries. 

Rural places away from tourist spots still keep to 'country' hours too - folk are up early and to bed early - the school day starts at 8.30am and a lot of businesses start very early and close 12-14.00.

Market days are often busy and Saturday mornings - but away from that a lot of places can be very quiet. 

You will generally find the local cafe busy over lunchtime - but closed by about 8.00 in the evening.

It can be disconcerting sometimes to be out and about in the French countryside at some beautiful place and be the only people there. But it's a  big country and very easy to get off the beaten track.

[Spottedlaurel]

Great to see more finds! 505 and Tercel particularly good.

Every year when I visit I think there won't be as much, but it hasn't happened yet and I'm certainly looking forward to our fortnight in July/August. We're going far enough south that rust shouldn't be as much of an issue, but still somewhere rural.

As I learnt on here last year, there's the "Empty Diagonal" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_diagonal We did a lot of cross-country rural driving in 2023 and some of the places we went through were extraordinarily quiet,not just by French standards of everyone being behind their shutters but almost to the point of desolation. There were one or two villages between Nancy and Troyes that seemed like they'd been completely deserted.

 

[lesapandre]

On 06/06/2025 at 15:08, Schaefft said:

I think it's not strictly abandoned, maybe just used to attract people to the restaurant across the road.

It is indeed and we followed it at least for a few days. Still plenty of signs indicating the awareness of the history of the book (as well as accommodation reviews). However a region can only survive for so long on what will be an increasingly lesser known story (I certainly didn't hear of it before).

We've arrived in Beaucaire an hour ago. Mostly cycle paths today so fewer spots although the town should reveal a few good ones later. First couple still from yesterday.

I've also seen a Citroen C6, slowly completing the French 90s/2000s Executive set. I think I'm just missing a 605 and Velsatis now!

The   Cévennes have a long and somewhat checkered history. There was  the brutal War of the Camisards between 1702 and 1710:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Camisards

Not sure how popular the Stevenson trail remains - but it is a charming classic book nevertheless.

The best modern summary of the area in English is 'Notes from the Cévennes' (Bloomsbury, 2018) by Adam Thorpe - again a charming book.

[urpert]

There’s also an amazing railway line for those into trainshite:

https://www.visit-occitanie.com/en/rail-tour/train/cevennes-line-nimes-langogne/

[N Dentressangle]

1 hour ago, urpert said:

There’s also an amazing railway line for those into trainshite:

https://www.visit-occitanie.com/en/rail-tour/train/cevennes-line-nimes-langogne/

Well that's one for my retirement list! 👍

[urpert]

The rolling stock used to be the very definition of trainshite but is now new shiny plastic things, unfortunately. 

[Schaefft]

Some more shite from around Montpellier today. The car park close to our flat must have contained 50% of the remaining Twingo population around here.

[Schaefft]

And we are done! This was one of the few DS 9s I've seen while in France, definitely one of those cars I could see myself in someday. I had a look at how many made it over here, a whopping 150!

That's a fraction of the Citroen C6s sold here 15 years ago. You can still pick up a new one as well, the discounts will be similar to that from the Citroen Dealer back then, some of them getting a crazy 20k discount from MSRP. right now!

Anyway, our flight from Paris to Newcastle was cancelled so we flew to London instead and got a rental car instead. Arrived at 4am this morning... Great news though, it was a newish Dacia Sandero, bi-fuel even. First Dacia I've driven, competent car with a surprising amount of features for it's price!

[hairnet]

cheapest ds9 here 18 thousand of your pounds

7 for sale

1.6 tho

errr.............

[mk2_craig]

Low spec (grey bumper) Renner 25 on old format plates - probably a one owner car. Yes please!!

[lesapandre]

It's on 'Véhicule de Collection' black plates - meaning it is now considered by the French state to be historic - CT only every 5 years for this class. So the owner has gone to the trouble of registering it and changing the plates - which now stay with the car.

This new process is saving a lot of younger classic cars from oblivion.

Getting a wash there by the look of it. 

These 25 are now getting scarce in France too.

[Schaefft]

2 hours ago, hairnet said:

cheapest ds9 here 18 thousand of your pounds

7 for sale

1.6 tho

errr.............

That's the problem, all of them are the 1.6 (Prince engine too apparently which doesn't help at all). DS UK also aren't selling the 360hp AWD model, the only trim I'd consider competitive with it's rivals considering they want 56k just for the slower fwd model they do sell here. On top of that they didn't even let you option a DS9 with the more interesting interior color choices you would get everywhere outside the UK. I don't blame them with such low sales numbers but it's all those things that would have made a difference in making it a more desirable car. Might as well just buy a low spec A6 then.

Once they hit sub-3 grand prices though...

1 hour ago, mk2_craig said:

Low spec (grey bumper) Renner 25 on old format plates - probably a one owner car. Yes please!!

 

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

It's on 'Véhicule de Collection' black plates - meaning it is now considered by the French state to be historic - CT only every 5 years for this class. So the owner has gone to the trouble of registering it and changing the plates - which now stay with the car.

This new process is saving a lot of younger classic cars from oblivion.

Getting a wash there by the look of it. 

These 25 are now getting scarce in France too.

It was parked in the same spot as the Escort I posted earlier above. Looked like a garage working on older cars near the center of Montpellier.

[mk2_craig]

On 13/06/2025 at 21:37, lesapandre said:

It's on 'Véhicule de Collection' black plates - meaning it is now considered by the French state to be historic

I reckon these are probably the original plates from when that was still the default in the late eighties early 90s. Or in other words before the Collection thing became a thing. 

[lesapandre]

Yea I think you are right.