For me If it's sunny it'll be great, if it's raining it'll be a disappointment. Everything (including my mood) is weather dependent, comes from living in the North West I suppose. T-F I didn't go to Kelso.

I'd have thought you'd be used to it by now...



Kelso wasn't that bad. It only rained once. OK, so that "once" was at the start, two days long, and left the place a quagmire, but I distinctly recall sitting on the grass bank above the beer tent on a clear dry night with Mr Rumble and a bottle of Whisky, late into the night, chatting about stuff, and watching the world below us.

Nope. It never happens, shite weather is shite weather, I just can't understand how or why my Viking/Norman/Saxon ancestors stopped here, looked around and thought 'Hmmm this'll do'.





Sounds attractive, but would be much more alluring without a soggy backside.

We're going, but not looking forward to it, to be honest..
Think I've got to learn French again, so I can understand everything they say or write down..

I'm one of the many people who say/think that most of the French people refuse to talk English.. So everything they make for the WM will be in French and if you don't understand it, you have a problem.

But will be there, and will talk only Dutch

Good memory there Mr Chapman - and we even had chairs!

As for Salbris - I'll be going of course, but for my money I much prefer smaller meetings. Maybe I just don't like crowds that much. I think I also prefer Autumn and Winter camps. Sitting round a bonfire late into the night with good company and plenty of booze wins for me every time.

I've only been to two WMs, Kelso 2005(obviously) and Austria 2001. The Austrian WM was my first international 2cv meeting and I was just blown away by the sheer scale of it, so that has to be my top meeting of all time.

I've since done about half a dozen FNs, a Belgian meeting in 2000 and Waggel last year. I really enjoyed Waggel, was a nice/relaxed meeting. I do generally enjoy each FN, but there's always something not quite 'right' about each one.

Last years meeting in Lit-et-Mixe was far from perfect, the campsites were spread out, and miles(or should I say kms?)from the main area, it took the best part of 20mins fast walking to get to it. On the day I arrived, I came in from the south and was directed by one of the 'organisers' into a line of A-series, we all ended up at a campsite, and I was asked for my wristband, which obviously I didn't possess I wasn't asked for my wristband by the first 'organiser'. At least the toilets were clean.

This years FN was crap in so much as the 'organisation' just wasn't there. The way of stacking vehicles on the road was ok, I guess, but once the venue opened, it was chaos! There was the big tent/marque with around a dozen or so people waiting to process completed/paid paperwork, but only one bloke in a metal box taking money I was eight people back in the queue, and it took around half and hour for me to get to the front and pay....Why? Then there was the field of stones!! For anybody walking along at night, it was just plain dangerous, I'm surprised there were no broken/twisted ankles. The toilets were truly disgusting by the end of the week. Highlight of this years FN? The pre-FN camp with Max and Harry and co.

Dunkerque has been the best FN for me so far, quickly followed by Bessais-le-Fromental. I didn't go to the Salbris FN, so can't compare.

I only hope Salbris can vastly improve on Giel.

Here endeth my rant, just felt it was valid.

PS:-I'm not bitter, honest.

The wha?



Aren't they always? Given that the average ChemiKhazi is "rated" for 7 people working a 40hr week (serviced once a week, presumably), then 3,000 people in a field for five days would "need" about 250 toilets emptied every day. In practice, since you're hoping to get the French to service 'em on a Bank Holiday, that's twice that, serviced every other day. And that's before you think about the demands placed on a bog by people there for 24hrs being higher than by those just there for a working day. Wonder how much that'd add to the cost of holding the event...?

The toilets at the CZ WM were generally superb. Probably the cleanest bogs i've encountered at any meeting!

yep. CZ dunnies were great. even when I tried staring into one for a technical chunder on the last morning, it was too clean to instigate the blowing of chunks.

I never go to meetings; I haven't stood in a field full of cars of any description for over 10 years.