Rendezvous 2026 – Malta, NY — Report

By George Dyke….

Rendezvous on the east coast of the USA celebrated its 50th anniversary this year with an event that extended an extra day and packed in a boat Cruise on Lake George.

For the past two years the home base hotel has been the Hyatt Place in Malta, NY, just 10 miles from the main day show field event and dinner at Lakeside Farms at Balston Lake on Saturday. Unlike every other Rendezvous that has been held on Father’s Day weekend (except for covid in 2022) this year it was moved up a week to accommodate the owners of Lakeside Farms who are swamped with other activities that weekend.

For some Rendezvous started with the Boston D Party™ — a Rendezvous pre-party hosted by Fernando J Alva Miras at the Brickbottom Artist’s Association building in Boston where friends nibbled and enjoyed some refreshment then going to The Independent Gastropub, before departing the next day for Malta.

Like last year, I brought “Whimsy” the infamous hand-painted 2CV Artcar that Bill Stevenson created in the early 1990’s along with 4 of his artist friends in Maine. (You can read all about Whimsy and how it came to me here: https://citroenvie.com/whimsy-and-a-prayer/).

For those arriving early on Thursday, the traditional ice cream social was held at a new venue; Guptill’s Roller Skating Arena in Cohoes, NY, about 20 miles south of the Hyatt Place in Malta.

On Thursday night Dale Martin hosted a dinner at Chianti Il Ristorante in Saratoga Springs.

Friday morning at 10:30 am, a caravan of Citroëns gathered to depart for the Lake George Boat Cruise and buffet lunch aboard the Lac du Saint Sacrement steamship.

The only rain for weekend occurred when the boat returned to dock. It was downpour but fortunately a passing one and the drive back to the hotel in Malta was a sunny one.

Back at the hotel it was registration time along with the annual pizza party that took over the hotel lobby as many folks purchased the special Rendezvous 50th anniversary shirts and and merchandise on display.

That evening at 7:30 we were treated to presentation on the History of Citroën in Canada with Chris Dubuque who made the trek from Seattle, to amaze us as the research he did to show how different to Canadian operation was from what Citroën set up in the USA.

You can read all the details of Chris’ presentation in this article on Citroenvie: https://citroenvie.com/citroen-in-canada-history/

Saturday was the big day with the car show and BBQ dinner at Lakeside Farms. A myriad of parts, books and memorabilia were on offer at the vendor tent from; Brad Nauss Automotive, Erik DeWidt – Classic Motorcars International, FPS WEST – 2CV Parts, ABCitroën, Dave Burnham and Citroënvie.

See a full gallery of photos of the weekend here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCXhZp

I took a few people for a nice bouncy ride in Whimsy.

Lon Price gave a informative tech talk on how to improve the electrical systems on Citroëns, He demonstrated and simple and effective process that gives new life to the performance of our aging connections.

The BBQ dinner at Lakeside Farms was served along with the results of the silent auction, the Rendezvous ticket raffle and of course — announcement of awards. This year’s Best in show winners were:

The Longest Distance recognition award went to Chip Steward who bought his 2CV Sausson just a year ago. To get to Rendezvous he left Florida on April 25 traveling to a car show in GA then on to Carlisle, PA for Citroëns@Carlisle in May, over to Virginia for a micro car drive, Maine (for a wake) then New Hampshire for small local car show, Gardner Massachusetts for small local car show, northeast to Kingdom Valley area in Vermont for fun then to Rendezvous — a total of 45 days — 3,728 miles(approx 6000km)! 

Being the 50th anniversary, special awards were handed out to 3 people who made Rendezvous the success it has been for so many years; Lance Hellman who organized the very Rendezvous (who also penned artwork of the original Rendezvous that was in the framed award), Mchael Cox who kept Rendezvous going until 2002, organized ICCCR in Amherst, MA in 2002 and who published Citroën Quarterly, and Robert Monteleone who took over from Michael to organize Rendezvous for 12 years.

I was also graciously recognized for the work I have done on Citroënvie for the past few decades.

We also applauded the efforts made by the Rendezvous chauffeurs; Bill Blaufuss, Dave & Jamie Burnham, Jon Chomitz, Michaela Hellman, Tim Kinnel and Andy Pickett, who spent many long hours to organize the weekend event.

After a farewell breakfast on Sunday catered by Rich and his crew from Lakeside Farms at Shenantaha Creek Park near the hotel, there was yet another Post-Rendezvous, meet-up for those heading south at Shadow 66 in Ghent, New York where owners Patrick and Astrid Jehanno welcomed about 60 people to their Citroën-themed restaurant for fine French food and a last chance for Cit-chat.

And for those who did not manage to hear the sound of the M35 rotary wankel engine Citroën, Karl Nelson manged to capture it traversing a roundabout.

Here;s to many more Rendezvous as we carry on a great tradition.