Page 172 - Classics Issue

VIVE LA BUG board. We slept until lunch and felt ft enough to go to the casino in the evening which says “boloney“ to people who say that Bugatti noise is tiring. During my week’s stay at Cannes, I covered 250 miles just running around between Cannes, Antibes and Monte Carlo and I had a most marvellous and restful time. I visited the Bugatti depot at Nice to have the oil level indicator removed as it had seized up, also flter cleaned, etc and a broken petrol pipe repaired. My friend few home from Cannes and on the following Sunday I set off alone for St. Jean de Luz, near Biarritz, where I was meeting my brother and a party of friends who had driven there direct from Calais in a couple of 4 1/2 litre Lagondas. they both felt pretty sure that I would never arrive and were almost making elaborate arrangements for towing my car back to England. I spent a night at Carcassonne en route about 300 miles from Cannes and reached St. Jean de Luz in time for dinner on Monday, that run being about 250 miles. The roads were fast and good surface most of the way and I covered the 80 miles before Bayonne in 90 minutes against a very strong headwind. Carcassonne is a most interesting place and I stayed at the Hotel de la Cite which is the most excellent for that particular type. The country was uninteresting and over one twisty section of about 150 miles, the tyres never ceased screeching, due to incessant fast cornering. On arrival, I found the front wheels were badly out of track, so I had this attended at Biarritz. One runs parallel with the Pyrenees for 200-300 miles, but the type of Frenchman we encountered is not the best, especially around St. Gaudens, where I had lunch. They are a Communistic lot and I met several “red“ demonstrations but struck no trouble except when entering a village at about 60 m.p.h, someone fred some sort of gun which found its mark on my right arm. I was wearing a leather coat, and fortunately, apart from rather acute pain, nothing happened. I left St. Jean de Luz (which was full of Spanish refugees and where you could hear the incessant rumblings of the guns at San Sebastian) at 11.40 p.m. on the following Saturday and had a grand run through the pine forests after Bayonne. It was an extremely cold night and after 155 miles I felt tired and pulled up by the roadside and slept for an hour. I then continued and covered 310 miles by breakfast, which I had at Ussel. I had a late lunch near Lyons and reached my destination, Lausanne in Switzerland in time for a late dinner. The milage was 623 and I had averaged 41 m.p.h. excluding stops. In spite of having had no sleep since Friday night, I was feeling quite ft. Fit enough, in fact, to change a wheel 6 miles before reaching Lausanne. The jack wouldn’t lift the car, so I drove 10 miles on a fat tyre, a new racing Dunlop, with dire effects on the cords and after great diffculty, borrowed a garage jack-the delay costing one and a half hours. After a 3 days stay at Lausanne, where it rained for the frst time since the run to Cannes, I set off for Molsheim, taking a wide tour of Switzerland through Spiez, Thun and Basle. I thoroughly enjoyed myself on the Alpine passes and the Bug roared over the lot in top gear. Occasionally, when in a hurry, I would changeto third and accelerate like a mad thing between the corners and have a grand time generally. I reached Molsheim at about 9.30 p.m. and had a dinner at the Station Hotel. I then enquired the whereabouts of the Hostellerie du Pur Sang. I rang the bell on the front gate and M. Fernand came out in his dressing gown. I shone my torch on the aluminium wheels “to prove my credentials“ and he opened wide the gates and cleared the garage-leaving his very smart Brescia in the drive.