25 September 2021

A castle, a cat, and some cars

   
Less than 10 miles south of places like Bruère-Allichamps, the Abbaye de Noirlac, and the
Château de Meillant, you come to the town of Ainay-le-Vieil and the Château d'Ainay-le-Vieil.
The Michelin guidebook says the château has been owned by the same family since the year 1467.
Jacques Cœur, born in Bourges in 1400 or so, used to live here, the guidebook says.
As for the cat, I think I took the photo in Bruère (le centre de la France).

   
This car, a vintage Citroën 2CV, was parked in front of the Château d'Ainay-le-Vieil
the day CHM and I were there. I drive a Citroën now, but it's not a 2CV.
The sentence on the red and black 2CV's rear window says:
"This is more than a car, it's a thirst for adventure."
I hope the adventures don't involve
too many tow trucks.

   
These classic cars (and others) were on display at the Château de Meillant,
which I blogged about a few weeks ago. The blue convertible is a Citroën.

       
Finally, here are a vintage Renault 4L (the gray car) and two shots of my Peugeot 206. I used to own a Renault 4L, back in 1981-'82 when Walt and I both lived in Paris. It was a great car, though far from luxurious. The light blue car in the other two photos is one I bought used in 2003, when we first came to live in Saint-Aignan. So I've been driving it for more than 18 years now, and the car itself will be 21 years old at Christmastime. The 206 deserves some recognition for riding me all around the Loire Valley, as well as on numerous trips to Paris, Normandy, Burgundy, the southwest of France, and even all the way to Madrid in Spain, for all these years. I hope to keep driving it for at least another five years. It runs great, but at its age and with 125K miles on its odometer, it doesn't go on long trips any more.

18 comments:

  1. These photos are a lot of fun, especially that intimidating chateau and the vintage cars. You are good to your cars, keeping them running so long. I had an orange LeCar from Renault that I loved in the late 70s, early 80s. Thinking about a Citroen Ami now, just for short trips, but they don't seem practical outside the city.

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  2. Car histories work as markers for the adventures we have had as well as the day to day living that went on. That Renault 4L looks roomy and ready for adventure! Your latest Peugeot is a nice car and the diesel one continues to be a workhorse. The cat may have been foreshadowing for Bert lol.

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    1. Bert came to live with ua less than a year later. That was 11+ years ago.

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    2. Edit to say latest Citroën C4 instead of Peugeot above.

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  3. For those interested, the car in #6 is a Hotchkiss. The 2cv is (or was) a great car.

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    1. I saw that name on the car's grille medallion, but I don't remember ever hearing about them before.

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  4. Evelyn always has just the right things to say...even about the sweet cat!

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  5. I would not want to try scaling those walls! Great cars.

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  6. In California, I bought a new VW Passat in 1996. I sold it in 2003. In those seven years, I put 105,000 miles on it. I'm sure most of those were commute miles, back and forth to work. Right now, my "newer" car — the one I drove around in with Evelyn and Esta last June — is a 2007 Citroën C4. So it's fourteen years old, and I've had it for seven years. In that amount of time I've put 10,500 miles on it. That's about one-tenth as many I put on the VW.

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  7. One of my friends recently replaced his old Honda Civic with 253,000 miles. Every summer he made the round-trip from Oregon to New Hampshire and he decided he should buy a new car. He replaced it with another Honda Civic. Honda makes reliable cars! I have a Honda Fit which is now 14 years old with only 93,000 miles and change. My jeep is older still, 25 years old and with 134,000 miles. Neither car has ever given me any problems. For me, it would be fun to have a Citroen 2cv! I always heard they were reliable, but then, there are maybe just 5 in my city. One is a B&B with french owners and a french name for their business (forgotten at moment!). My guess is that your Citroen should be good for many miles and years, too.

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    1. Walt had a Jeep from 1994 until 2003. We drove it across the U.S. that year on our way to France. It was Cherokee Sport model and had about 110,000 miles on it. Sometimes I think we should have had it shipped to France instead of selling it in N.C. before we flew out. But getting a U.S.-made car registered in France can be a real hassle.

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  8. I think the 206 is an attractive car and certainly doesn't look its age. I also like that orange kitty!

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  9. Evelyn and Seine J got here first and said it better than I can.
    We saw a *lavender* 2CV here a couple of days ago.

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    1. I remember that there were two or three 2CVs in SF that we would would see once in a while when we lived there. One belonged to a boulanger who had a shop in the Fillmore neighborhood.

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  10. Only 125,000 miles? You're just getting the Peugeot broken in. :-) My almost-13-year-old Prius has 135,000+ on it, and the mechanics tells me it's good for lots more.
    The little Peugeot is a nice looking car.

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    1. My Peugeot is a diesel so the engine should last a very long time. So far the body and interior are in pretty good shape. These French cars are so small. If my information and calculations are right, the Prius is 29 inches longer than the Peugeot 206. The 206 is really a two-passenger vehicle, even though you can cram 3 people in the back seat for short hauls.

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    2. And the Prius is tiny compared to the behemoths most Americans drive. I hate those things, much prefer small cars. A couple of years ago, my French rental was a VW Polo, and it was small, zippy, and just about right. Probably the size of your Peugeot.

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    3. European cars are getting bigger too. A lot of people in France are buying SUVs. The Prius is just a few inches longer than my Citroën C4. The VW Polo is nearly a foot longer than my Peugeot 206. Peugeot makes even smaller cars now, the 106 for example. Peugeot also makes car that look like behemoths to me.

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What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?