West Coast Rendezvous – 2021 Report
We are pleased to provide the following report by Tim Clark who attended the 2021 West Coast Citroën Rendezvous held at Pismo Beach, CA from Sept. 17 – 19. West Coast Rendezvous is an annual event, this year organized by Citroën Car Club US (Los Angeles). Several San Francisco Region Citroën Club members also participated.
Another Rendezvous is completed with good results and many smiles.
We arrived Friday afternoon after flat towing Mlle Clouseau (our 2CV) from Capitola in about four hours. We saw a Citroën D Break as we passed through Salinas and waved them by. The parking area at the Shore Cliff hotel was nicely secured with most participants arriving on Friday.
Saturday morning was the Grand Rallye Amusant, which was to start at 9:30 but it seemed that no one was in a hurry to stop the conversations in the parking area. We finally started rolling after 10:15.
The instructions had a few errors and we felt sorry for those driving solo, as they hopelessly followed other cars that too were lost.
There was a stop planned at Edna Valley Vineyard, which many rally-ers skipped to proceed directly to Avila Beach for a Citroën car show for the public. There voting occurred for the Best in Show and winners of various Citroën classes A thru F.
Did I mention that the route instructions were in French and kilometers? There were 20 questions to answer along the route, and some had nothing to do with the route like” What should you never do when you see an Angelic figure in a graveyard? Me thinks Google couldn’t answer that one, and only one rally-er knew the answer (something to do with Dr. Who).
After the show it was a short drive from Avila Beach to Pismo with more conversations in the parking area and impromptu tech sessions .
The evening awards dinner featured silent auctions, car show winners and presentation by Fanny Adam, telling about her journey so far from Alaska to Terra Del Fuego in a Traction Avant. She had the audience enthralled and handled all the questions with excellent humor and charm.
(More on her adventure can be found here: https://int-media.citroen.com/en/citro%C3%ABn-terra-america-adventure).
There were certainly some excellent and deserving Citroën’s awarded prizes in their class.
Sunday morning was pretty much load and go. Several cars were trailered and one towed.
Here is a photo gallery of the event:
Nice write up and photos. Looks like a fun time was had for all.
Just to clarify, several people got the right answer to the cemetery question and while PEOPLE may have made errors of navigation, the instructions were correct. One way or another, everyone seemed to have a good time, and that was the idea. My wife and I had a lot of fun setting up the Rallye and think we delivered something that was not only a challange, but of some interest to all involved.
I’m sure Steve is correct about the instructions and it was fun. I’m often lost even with GPS. At the awards dinner I thought it was announced that the rally winner was the only one to get the correct answer to the cemetery question or maybe he was the only one to all answers correct. It was a fun and clever event.
Bonjour! I was almost done preparing my own report on the event (for CitroenVie) but obviously Tim Clark was quicker and also has many pictures that I do not have, so thank you Tim! I will only add that the venue was absolutely perfect, the hotel, the location, Pismo Beach and Avila Beach…..being that it was my first visit in this part of California….bravo to the organizers! It may be worthwhile to mention that a few of the participants drove (not trailered!) their Citroen from far away…..Sacramento, the bay area…Phoenix area (1 DS and myself with my 2CV)…..a great event!
True to most car buffs gathering, we meet people and sometime it is important to mention a name or two, in this case for the benefit of Citroen owners out West: MARRS (Martin Automotive Repair & Racing Services). If I understood well, Martin, a nice French mechanic, worked with or for Jerry Hathaway at some point; he now has his own shop and obviously works on Citroen and others….good to know, right?