French Car Meet-Port Moody September 21, 2002

By Freda Vasilopoulos

Thanks to John MacGregor for organizing this event. He didn¹t give us much notice, just an email on the Wednesday before, once the forecast promised a sunny weekend ahead. And the weather, notoriously fickle in the Lower Mainland, cooperated with glorious blue sky, sunshine, and just enough heat to make it perfect for a picnic and for Citroën.

We met at Eurocar, Wim and Svetlana VanderBom's Citroën importing business in Port Moody. Nine cars showed up for the event. The 2CVs were represented by Wim's black and burgundy Charleston, Brian Yates's black beauty, and the orange"Pumpkin" belonging to Thor Frohn-Nielsen. Johnny Mac came in his green DS "Andre", Thomas Meyer drove his gold DS with the best leather seats I've seen, and Leonce LeBlanc showed up late, but welcome as usual, in his electric blue DS. John and Freda Vasilopoulos drove out from Abbotsford in their gray CX. The other two cars at the meet were not Citroën but were certainly objects of admiration. A beautiful Gordini Renault Dauphine with its original blue paint, owned by Gordon Emslie, inspired envy in all of us. The ninth car present was a silver Triumph TR7, driven by Lionel Hondier who also owns a couple of 2CVs, one here and one in France.

A number of other people attended, who do not presently have the privilege of driving a French car, but who hope to in the future, or who are just interested in unusual cars. William Ting, as usual, took photographs of the event.

After coffee and donuts at Wim's shop, we drove to Rocky Point Park for fish and chips. Everyone enjoyed the sunshine and the delicious food, even the seagulls. I got bombed by one, but better on me than on the food.

Back to the cars (the gulls all disappeared as soon as the food was gone), we took more photos and answered questions from passers-by. Then, into the cars and out for a drive up to Belcarra Park. Amazing how much unspoiled wilderness there still is this close to the city. Those 2CVs certainly could negotiate the winding road through the forest of evergreens. Not that the DSes and others were far behind. People along the way kept stopping what they were doing to point and stare at our little parade. "Look at that weird car. And there's another, and another."

On the return trip we drove up to Buntzen Lake, parked all the cars in a row and took more pictures. Some of us stayed behind talking while others left to go home. We realized the party was over when our CX and Leonce's DS were the only ones left at the lake shore. Leonce said he certainly hoped we knew the way back because he'd never been up there before. Neither had we, but after one wrong turn into a parking lot with no exit, we found the road out. Thanks, guys, for abandoning us in the wilds.

Seriously, it couldn't have been a more perfect day. Great cars, great weather, and great people.