By Richard Boudrias…
Driving happily for the past sixty years in the heaven of vintage automobiles in general and Citroëns in particular, it never occurred to me that in North America world politics would curtail our passion to attend the annual Citroën Rendezvous in Saratoga Springs, New York. Alas the present regime in Washington coupled with the high difference in the currency exchange resulted in our small group in Quebec deciding to accept André Verner’s warm invitation to participate in the fifth edition of the Élégance Trois-Rivières that occurred the same Father’s Day weekend as Rendezvous.
Élégance Trois-Rivières is a well run organization and this year one of the features was the 70th anniversary of the Citroën DS.
Led by Jean-Claude Taquet, our little threesome drove from Montreal along the historical “Chemin du Roy” while admiring the majestic St. Lawrence River to our right. We arrived in Trois-Rivières where many friends and passionate old car aficionados, proud of the garden variety of their American and European automobiles, greeted us warmly.
A dedicated marquee kept our Citroën’s in the shade while we admired the three hundred plus automobiles facing the peaceful river. One of them highly impressed me, a magnificently polished 1915 Peerless that the young owner drove 6,000 kilometers (about 3,730 miles) from Trois-Rivières to Alaska at 95 km/h!
The hotel accommodation and the variety of fine restaurants minutes to the exposition site added to our happiness.
Vincent Desquirez’s beautiful bi-colour 1963 DS 19 awarded him a “cockade” for the best DS in the Citroën collection and Yves L’écuyermade, who won Best of Choice in the show for his 1954 Traction 11B, received a $1,000 tax credit as part of a donation made by the event to support a local charity for the homeless.
Show organizer, André Verner, had contacted me about a chocolate DS I had mentioned to him that Chef Pâtissier Matthieu Carlin, the “Chocolatier” of the Hôtel de Crillon, a historic luxury hotel in Paris, makes to present iconic French culture to hotel guests. Thinking it would be nice have a chocolate DS featured at every table for the Sunday Concours Brunch, André reached out to Matthieu Carlin and asked how it was made. The conversation went so well that Matthieu offered to send André the actual mold that he made for the car. André had a local chocolate shop work from the mold and as a result each of the Élégance Trois-Rivières brunch guests got to take home one of these chocolate DS.
Richard ~ Thanks for sharing what looks like a lovely event! We were certainly missing our Québécois amis in Saratoga this year.
Hopefully, the tides will turn and you all can join us next June.