By Francois Ribaton….
When I first saw the Andrew Brodie book “An Omelette and Three Glasses of Wine”, one particular picture in it has retained my attention: this one with a Goddess on a stone bridge beside the signpost “Bligny-sur-Ouche 2 / Beaune 17”.
It so happens that one of my best friends, Maurice Morel, a great classic cars enthusiast, has a family house in the area. So, I sent him that picture… He was very surprised and replied: “It’s my home, my village!” He went on to explain that the photograph was taken on one of the bridges of Lusigny sur Ouche… and the place looks the same to this day.
We immediately decided to redo the same photo… but with our cars, of course!
Then time passed…
It was only at the beginning of October we had we finally had the time to do it.
We left Toulon on a Friday morning, with our wives, Maurice with his 1967 DS19 and I with my 1973 D-Special. We reached Lusigny sur Ouche, via Buesch Valley and Vercors, then we rejoined the former road, Nationale 6, until our final destination.
The next day, we staged the photo shoot. We managed to find the same location depicted in the Andrew Brodie photo. First, we separately shot our cars, and then both together.
Little by little, curious people from the village and tourists arrived: maybe, we weren’t very discreet! After a while, a small group crowded around the scene, more than happy to see the cars of their childhood or adolescence again.
In France, the 2CV, Traction Avant and the DS/ID have that effect: everyone’s got a story to share about one of these Citroëns! There was at least one one the family and, if unfortunately there was none, the neighbor had one, or they were dreaming of buying one!
As a finale to the photo shoot, we organized the staging of an accident between both cars, before the amused eyes of the viewers.
Mission accomplished — thanks to the inspiration from Andrew Brodie. You are not forgotten in the World of Citroën enthusiasts!