If you go down to the road today...

...you're in for an unexpected surprise! Heading home from Loches earlier today we found ourselves slotted in behind a vintage car, which we guessed was pre-WWII. It had a rally sign [which we couldn't read] on the back and was sporting an old UK numberplate.

On the way to St Flovier: behind the 1934 Riley Blue Streak Bronson Special & in front a Buick Standard Six from 1925

While going through Perusson the rain started to spit again and the poor driver and passenger were completely at the mercy of the elements; it was all of 10C according to our dashboard. Worse, as we left Perusson towards Verneuil the heavens opened.... again. The vintage car too had turned off on the same road so we settled down behind them wondering where they were headed to. Meanwhile, Niall had rooted around on the back seat to get hold of the camera which -for once- we had with us and took some photos as we headed on towards St Flovier. En-route we caught up with another car which was obviously taking part in the same rally. By now, we'd deciphered part of the faded sepia styled sign and read that they had started in Paris, but it was still too hard to read the destination whilst driving behind them.

From the front: the 1925 Buick Standard Six in Charnizay

A couple of years ago we were in Le Grand Pressigny when a rally stopped there for lunch and we speculated whether the participants of this rally were headed there. Driving through St Flovier it was obvious that other rally cars had gone before as there were little knots of people waving and taking photos as the 'old timers' drove through -- with us bringing up the rear! Leaving St Flovier we came upon a couple more vintage cars and by now it seemed pretty clear that the cars would be passing through our own village of Charnizay so we put our foot down and overtook the slower ones to get ahead of the game.

Coming up the hill, car no 66: a 1938 Alfa Romeo 6C

Our village sits on the top of an escarpment above the Aigronne river, and right at the top is a T junction where you turn right if you want to continue on to Preuilly sur Claise. In other words the rally cars would have to change down going up the hill and slow/stop at the T junction which would be great for getting some photos. So far we'd taken a few snaps through the rain smeared windshield.

A 1908 Brasier Race Car 1925 Bentley 3 ltr Supersports

Once home we did a bit of rootling around on the internet and discovered that all the cars we saw  were taking part in a 3 day Vintage Paris - Madrid rally which commemorated one held 110 years ago in 1903. If you like, you can read about the original race here. The particiants had left Versailles this morning on the first leg which will end later today in Angouleme. According to the blurb they stopped for lunch at the Auberge de Montpoupon, a very nice place indeed, as we found out last summer when we ate there.

Star of the show, car no 1:1903 Mercedes 60HP, 110 yrs old and going strong

4 spare wheels and 'proper' carriage lamps at the back

Thanks to the rally website we were able to find out the makes/models of the cars we saw. Sadly, no photo of the front of the Riley Blue Streak Bronson Special. It lived up to its name as it vrooomed along the D road at a healthy 80 mph so we never did get ahead of it!

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Thanks to Tim and Leon for corrections on the exact types of cars :-)