This Rolls-Royce chassis was intended to take an armoured car body: ... and this is a Tatra V8 limousine, from Czechoslovakia:
This is a whole grid full of pre-WW2 racing cars, mainly Bugattis and Alfa-Romeos: ... and another grid full of later F1 cars, mainly with Renault or Peugeot engines:
Just to complete the picture, here is a Bugatti rail car in the nearby railway museum. With four Royale straight-8 engines of 13 litres each, it was quick:
While many manufacturers like to blazon their own names on their products, others more discreetly settle for initials. Perhaps when Messrs Bollack, Netter & Co chose the call their car a 'BNC' it was the wiser course.
Today I plan to ride over the Ballons des Vosges, via the pass of Bussang, down the Moselle valley to Nancy, and head north-west to stay at Peronne on the River Somme. It is close to Thiepval*, which I hope to visit tomorrow, and then head for Ypres. Northern France is pretty flat, much like southern England, so these will be the last mountains I see on this trip. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiepval_Memorial
I was in Ypres yesterday the whole of the area around the Cloth hall is cordoned off with several big stages they are having a pop concert
I rode 300 miles or so across France on Wednesday, and stayed in a delightful "Chambre d'Hote" (which means a bed & breakfast in the owners' home) in Peronne. Now I wish I had stayed more in B&B and less in corporate chain hotels. The trouble is big chains have air conditioning whilst B&B don't. Superb typically French dinner in Antoine's Bistrot. Thursday 27 July I explored some little country back-roads around Albert, Thiepval, and Bapaume. There are war cemeteries and memorials dotted around everywhere, large and small. Some are lonely and deserted; some are up rough tracks. I'll try to post photos of a few which I visited. These are the graves of a unit of the Devonshires, who were buried in the very trench they had died holding; they hold it still.
The Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium. It is a public road, with traffic passing to and fro right through the gate.
I also tried to visit Passchendael but frankly it was a bit of a theme park. Very busy and not very dignified. May I make a comment about the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. From what I have seen the CWGC does a fantastic job. Every grave and every memorial (and there are many) is meticulously maintained, cleaned, weeded, protected, and kept visible to all comers. This enormous task is carried out just as thoroughly today as it has been for so many decades. The bill is footed by the governments of the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India. Long may this continue.
My tour around France worked out at 2,571 miles (London to London) over 16 days. This averaged 165 miles per day (although there were some days with little or no riding, and others with 300 miles). Nearly all of it was on local (departmental) roads or Routes National. Very little on Autoroutes. French roads are generally excellent, far superior to British roads and almost up to the standard of German ones. Little or no traffic except near cities. Police hardly ever seen. The Multistrada DVT 1200S, new in April, has done 4,873 miles so far with no problems. It hasn't missed a beat, everything works beautifully, and I'm loving it. The route turned out something like this: London to Tunnel Calais Paris (14 July) Normany beaches/Caen Poitiers Dordogne Valleys of the Lot and the Tarn, and the mountains between them Carcassonne Narbonne beach/Beziers Mountains of the Grands Causses Millau Bridge Ardeche Grenoble Alps of the Haute Savoie/Morzine Geneva Haut Jura Sochaux Mulhouse (Museums of Automobile and Trains) Ballons des Vosges Epernay (in Champagne) The Somme Vimy Ypres Calais Tunnel to London
