Tales from France 2007

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del320

MB Enthusiast
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Joined
Mar 4, 2005
Messages
2,435
Location
Near Melrose, Scottish Borders
Car
1996 E320 Coupe
We’ve just returned from our annual French holiday. The old gal put another flawless 2400 miles under her wheels. With the direct ferry link from Rosyth, it’s only a 17 mile drive from my front door to the dock gates exit at Zeebrugge.

We stayed near Nyons, around 30 miles southeast of Montelimar and got as far south as Avignon. That A7 south of Lyon is some road – few HGVs, just three lanes of tightly packed cars battering on. Venture into the outside lane and you’re being pushed along at over 90mph and in your RVM you can see the hairs up the nose of the driver behind. Tailgating is now a major pastime for the frogs whether on M-ways or backroads. Their mission is to overtake at all costs.

Just clear of Lyon we passed a major shunt on the north bound carriageway. We continued at 80–85mph past three stationary lanes for twenty minutes, almost to the tolls four miles south of Vienne!

The region where we stayed is dominated by Mount Ventoux. A smooth winding road climbs for 16 miles from around 1100 feet right to the summit at 6220 feet – OK, nowhere near as high as the Stelvio, but good enough for Mercedes to test several disguised E-classes.

View attachment 8187

The trailers were laden with ballast and these boys drove the cars like they were stolen. Being my car, transmission, brakes, tyres and cooling system, I drove up in a sedate 40 odd minutes. They ploughed up in less than half that.

View attachment 8188

Cyclists take hours! Also a nice contingent of MG As, Bs and Cs as well as several Jag XKs.

I also drove up a minor pimple called Garde Grosse – 3100 feet – near Nyons and got real earache from Mrs D for my troubles. It was actually a bit daft. A single gravel track with no passing places snakes precipitously to the top which is so pointed you have to do a ten-point turn for fear of going over the edge.

Garde Grosse.jpg

So after taking photos and admiring the view, did the car not start? Three goes and boy, was I sweating. Of course, it was just red hot and the fuel was evaporating. No second chances on the hairpins either – spinning wheels, no purchase. Once down, Mrs D says “don’t EVER pull a stroke like that again!”

We spent second part of the holiday near Salins-les-Bains in the Jura. More good roads there but I behaved.

Despite the punishment, I got a fraction over 30 mpg over 2408 miles using 98ron.
 
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Sounds fun and the car looks great. We had lovely weather down near Cahors, only rained once during the ten day trip.

No incidents to report other than a Skoda which had done a 360 just outside Paris CGD and hit the concrete barrier. Amazingly he had avoided everyone else!

Watch out for sharp practice at SpeedFerries. They cancelled our crossing home due to technical failure and we had to re-route via EuroTunnel as my wife had a midwife's appointment in the morning. Since they claimed a cancellation rather than a delay, SpeedFerries have no obligation to do anything for you other than to offer travel the next day (no food, accom or alternative travel). Since we didn't take up this SpeedFerries option we are not covered under our travel insurance for "delay".:mad:
 
Despite their age, those W124 coupes remain gorgeous and stylish cars to look at, especially in that colour :). Class!
 
Agree, I love them, beautiful car - I will have one, soon.....

Nice write up Del
 
Thank you,

I am going Saturday via France, Germany, Switzerland to Austria (Niederthai, Oetztal, 1550m high, snow?).

Full booard, € 64 a head (breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, 5 course dinner)
Hotel Falkener Hof www.falknerhof.com

Good to see those pictures in advance!


:cool: :bannana: :D :bannana:
 
Del,

How do you keep your front wheels so clean after all those miles? Mine are covered in brake dust after 100!

PJ
 
question? why am I only getting this--- Name: Disguised E-class.jpg Views: 39 Size: 105.6 KB---instead of the actual picture??
 
question? why am I only getting this--- Name: Disguised E-class.jpg Views: 39 Size: 105.6 KB---instead of the actual picture??

One possible reason is that you have "show pictures" switched off in the browser settings.

In IE7 go to Internet Options, Advanced, then scroll down to Multimedia and check the "Show Pictures" option.

If using another microsoft browser it should be in a similar place, if using Firefox or Safari, then it could be a similar type of setting.

It may be something else entirely, but hopefully this might help
 

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