| 02-26-2018, 05:07 PM | #1 |
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We show you RETROMOBILE in Paris...
So every year I try to visit the Techno Classic car show in Essen. It's held every March. I've always heard of this "other" cool classic show(Retromobile) held in Paris, France. But for one reason or another I never seem to make the seven hour drive/trip there. This year was to be different! Literally nothing was gonna stop me from attending RETROMOBILE.
I decided to go on the first day of the show(on Wednesday, March 7th)... because they would be open from 10am to 9pm. I thought to myself just in case the show turns out to be AMAZING... I would(could) stay there the entire day!! I was going to be driving how later that night, back to Germany. I started my drive the day before(Tuesday)... I booked a hotel about a 100 kms outside of Paris. I didn't want to deal with the parking situation in Paris(it's really quite appalling). So I found myself a small B&B in the Champagne region of France, called: Douard Christian. More on this later... Douard Christian... https://champagnedouard.fr/en/content/6-bed-breakfast First I drove along Autobahn A6(Live near Nurnberg) I had to pass by Sinsheim(one of my favorite museums) so I just had to stop by for a quick look-see. I literally just used their restroom and looked around their gift shop. I hadn't been to the museum in years and they had some areas under renovations for the upcoming summer season. Back in the car and drove further SW on the A6 Autobahn... French Concorde and the Russian Concordes on the roof at Sinsheim... You can walk up inside the planes on the roof - when visiting the museum. Sinsheim is pretty cool about that - especially for kids. Plus they are open EVERY day of the year!! Very unGerman like!!  Btw... Sinsheim also has a sister museum in Speyer, 20 minutes away, near/South of Heidelberg. That museum has the Russian space shuttle and a few cargo planes, U-Boat and SAR Navy ship and about ~100 US fire trucks from the turn of the century! It's really another awesome museum for any gear head. But IF you can only visit one... go to Sinsheim!! I then drove past Hockenheimring on the A6.... took a few pics at semi warp speeds out the passenger side window...  ...and continued down to Saarbrücken...
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| 02-26-2018, 06:05 PM | #2 |
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Just before Saarbrücken, I stopped in Homburg to fill up at the last Esso in Germany... grabbed a quick bite to eat and was off on my way to my B&B for the night.
Up until this point the trip was uneventful. Weather was cold but no rain or snow. But that was about to change.... My next stop was to be in Reims: Circuit du Reims-Gueux located here on GoogleMaps... https://www.google.de/maps/place/Cir....9310455?hl=en But when I got past Metz and was in the Reims metro area... the sky got really dark and a light snow began to fall. I decided to skip the old abandoned racetrack at this point - bc I probably wouldn't be able to get any decent pics... and soldiered onto my B&B in Champagne. As I got pretty close to my hotel... the snow really started to come down. Also the address in my Nav/GPS was wrong, so I had to stop a few times and ask the locals for help. That was kind of interesting... luckily my Nav has internet access so I just search for the hotel/vinery name and found it that way. Once I got to my B&B the nice old lady there tells me in French that her hotel won't be open until March! I was like WTF. Its snowing like mad and I am in the middle of no where. Grape country. I show her my reservation email.... and she says... oh wait... my son! lol Her son comes, and all is good. I was the only guest in their hotel that night. It was cool. We ended up getting quite the snow storm. The next morning over a foot of snow had fallen. The B&B was simple and clean AND new. It was very nice and pretty cheap at 75 euros for the night. Douard Christian... https://champagnedouard.fr/en/content/6-bed-breakfast Paris was in some sort of snow emergency event. Seems the French don't get a lot of snow. They didn't have that many snow plows and no one cleaned the snow off their cars nor did they seem to have snow tires installed. The polar opposite from Germany where all of that is mandated by German law. You even must have a snow scraper in your car along with cleaning off your car before driving. That night I programed my Nav to see how far away I was from the Retromobile classic car show. I was surprised to see ALL of Paris highlighted in orange traffic nightmare. I could only hope tomorrow would be better.  Since the B&B didn't serve dinner... I ventured out in the snow to find a bite to eat. In the "big city" of Dormans... I found a pizza kiosque, so one pizza to go!  on the outskirts of 51700 Dormans, France on my way to the B&B... Funny story... the hotel told me they had so many problems with guests forgetting to return the room keys. But since they put these key chains on... no more problems! lol A small little pizza joint in 51700 Dormans, France You just HAVE to, have one of these when in France! I know it doesn't look like it... but there was about a foot of snow outside. I should have taken a pic of my car buried in snow... but I was on a mission to get into Paris! Only took me an extra 30 minutes with the snow delays. my continental breakfast... Another cool vinyard just down the street from my B&B. Off heading to the highway and to Retromobile in Paris... Once I got back onto the A4 Autoroute heading into Paris... the road was pretty good. Only on the roads leading to the Autoroute were kind of sketchy. Ok, now onto my pics! Sit yourself down with a coffee or something... I took "just a few" pictures. Dackel
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| 02-26-2018, 07:06 PM | #3 |
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And then THIS...
The French Police(Gendarmerie) made all the trucks park on the highways over night! How strange. No one cleaned off their cars before driving. Back in Germany you would get a ticket for this! Plus you could be held accountable for any accident that happens bc of snow/ice coming off your car!
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| 02-26-2018, 09:27 PM | #7 |
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| 02-27-2018, 01:17 PM | #8 |
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| 02-27-2018, 03:30 PM | #9 |
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AND then this very special Kremer K3... I knew it looked familiar to me... Do you know the story about the Whittington Brothers & this Kremer K3 ? Pretty unbelievable!!
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| 02-27-2018, 04:00 PM | #10 |
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| 02-27-2018, 04:46 PM | #11 |
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| 02-27-2018, 05:45 PM | #12 |
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Toys for big boys...  
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| 02-27-2018, 06:10 PM | #13 |
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| 02-27-2018, 06:21 PM | #14 |
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Renault...
And now for my kind of Renault's!!!
Renault's winning race cars from the 1978 LeMans... French Presidential Limo; the infamous Citroën DS... How The Citroën DS Saved A French President's Life https://jalopnik.com/5928024/how-the...residents-life
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| 02-27-2018, 07:07 PM | #15 |
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.
strategically placed circular paper post-it note. The End.
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| 03-16-2018, 07:54 PM | #19 | |
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Quote:
I use a Panasonic Lumix DMC LX7. It has a fast f1.4 Leica lens, and its a small P&S type camera. It's only 10Mpixels, but it does a great job. I want to replace it, but I haven't found something that out classes it. IF anyone has a new camera suggestion, just hit me up(PM).  I also have a Canon D70 dsl... but sometimes I just don't feel like carrying a huge camera, and this Lumix does a good job at staying under the radar - when shooting in a crowd or at a car dealership. Dackel
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| 03-17-2018, 04:25 AM | #21 |
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Did you by any chance get any photos of the event mate?
Many many thanks for sharing, what a journey you put us through once more, I 'm always looking forward every year this season for your Essen correspondence, this one was a surprise. Have a good one
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