"Good morning. I understand you are organising the Talbot Owners Club trip to Le Mans in two weeks." "Yes" "I have just joined the club and wondered if you had any spaces left?" "We sold out some time ago, but have just had a cancellation. If you can let me know today the place is yours." "Please send the details."

So began our Le Mans adventure. The 'we' in this story are myself, Martin, my 20 year old son Laurence and a 70 year old Talbot BD75. Talbots and indeed pre-war cars came into our lives only in June when I purchased Doug Ls 'Arctic Talbot' BWM 512. Before that GO was not automatically associated with the numbers 51 to 54, BA's were awarded by universities and Blight was a potato disease!

UK shakedown consisted of a first ever VSCC regularity trial (how do the experts do it to the second?), fulfilling Doug's regular role as course car at Cadwell Park and some gentle driving around the Nottinghamshire lanes. Most useful of all was a two hour 'teach in' from Bill Barrott which we left with new distributor cap, points, rotor arm, spark plugs, fan belt and substantially more knowledge. Thanks Bill.

The 220 mile trip to Portsmouth went without a hitch and demanded both Barbour jacket and tee shirt within the same hour. At last the docks and the Mondeos and Vectras of the A34 gave way to a mouth watering selection of cars and the mounting excitement of a trip to Le Mans. On board Steve and the ERL team met us with champagne and the Talboteering started. Thanks Chris Reynolds for your good humour in answering so many elementary questions about our chosen cars.

Le Havre started with a bang - almost literally as we had a flat tyre driving off the ferry ramp. The hydraulic bottle jack that worked so well at home would not now fit under the spring shackle. But within the blink of an eye we were surrounded by Talbots. The Chairman introduced himself, Tony Ward produced the right sized screw jack, John wound the car up and Laurence changed the wheel in a display that would have graced the F1 pit lane. I knew we had joined a good club.

The Pont de Normandie is a spectacular sight at any time. On a night when the lights stretch up into the cloudy sky it is awe inspiring. On the other side lay Honfleur with a welcome hotel and even better, a cold beer.

Next day we followed ERL's super route through Normandie revelling in the combination of quiet roads, beautiful scenery and warming weather. You wonder why they invaded England! Coffee stop was Sees, co-incidentally twinned with our home town of Southwell in Nottinghamshire. They are both small towns blessed with disproportionately large cathedrals. We teamed up with Quentin and Susie who led us a merry chase in their Talbot 90 through pedestrian precincts and one-way streets, but Susie's navigating always came out ahead - don't ask me how! Lunch was the redemption. Sitting in the sunshine beside the Route National we saw a great selection of cars and 74 years ago would probably have seen the works Talbots purring down the same road. Well done for Quentin and Susie for getting us into the French spirit so soon.

And so into the circuit - a hot, dusty and initially confusing place. First port of call was Paddock 1 where the Talbots were in various states of mechanical health but spirits were high. Thereafter a whistle-stop tour of the other paddocks to savour the intoxicating old car atmosphere, before an evening run to Vaiges and the accommodating Hotel du Commerce. There the wine flowed and the conversation eddied around Talbots and other interesting topics.

Race day dawned hot and sultry as only it can in central France. Admission to the circuit exposed the Gallic approach to organisation and in the resultant queue, pre-war large capacity fared better than post-war high pressure in cooling system performance.

First highlight was a lap of the race circuit. Once the 105's and 110's had purred away followed by a thunder of Cobras we had the circuit to ourselves - what an experience. The straights are extremely long and the corners very tight. Our admiration of the racing drivers went up tenfold. Thank you Chris for donating your ticket for the price of a bottle of wine and Gareth for giving us the confidence to give it a go. Honour for the slowest car on the circuit was hotly contested with a pre-war AC!

Other memories of the day. The dizzying height of the Tribune stand, as we watched the Talbot drivers sprint to their cars. The golden glow of dusk with the lights of the GT40's sweeping under Dunlop Bridge and through the Esses. The mouth watering selection of cars that had shaped sports car racing history and returning to the car park after midnight to find most of the Talbots still there - "hardcore" as Laurence said.

Sunday was a relaxed day. For those who returned to the circuit it was like the 'morning after' - quiet and a little disjointed. The du Commerce swimming pool seemed a good place to escape the dust and heat, in between peeping under bonnets and comparing header tanks, oil filters and other oily finger things.

The gala dinner showed the great camaraderie amongst the Talboteers. Many others felt envious or if they drove Lagondas just pissed off. Laurence picked Paul Wignall's brain about motor sport so I guess the motor sport news will now be a regular through the letter box. The early hours seemed to come round as quickly as a Talbot rev counter.

Next morning started with the stirring sight of David Thomson, Gareth Holding and Paul Wignall purring off, line astern into the sunrise. The late to beds had a more civilised start. Not before Tony Ward had corrupted Laurence with a ride in BLO 110. 'Wicked' said it all and the piggy bank has grown into an elephant bank as we save for a 110!

ERL's route home took us through some delightful countryside, although by Falaise the Talbot brakes had gone from stopping to retardation to gentle deceleration. Sans front brakes we stuck to the auto route and felt huge relief in reaching Le Havre in one piece. Parked behind Ian Potts we had a demonstration of his brilliant lighting improvements (roll on the magus opus Ian).

On board more champagne and conversation. Thank you Michael Marshall and John Ward for your extensive and erudite explanation of Mr. Roesch's braking system. Having stripped it down it makes complete sense.

Portsmouth came all too quickly and as the Talboteers dispersed into the English night we reflected on a wonderful experience. Well done to David Booth and the committee for organising the event and making us newcomers feel so welcome. Bring on the next continental tour (Rally des Alps?).

Martin and Laurence Bryant

P.S. The flat tyre was due to a porous tube.Dunlop red and 30 years old. Check yours! Lack of braking = lack of lining. Pretty simple really.

The entry list showed that there are 3 Talbot 105s and 2 Talbot 90s entered

For those unfamiliar with the format it can be summarised thus; the maximum 366 car entry (+72 reserves) is divided up into six grids (or ‘plateaux’) by date, with the object of completing 3 races per grid within a 24-hour period starting at 16.00 on Saturday and finishing 16.00 Sunday. The oldest cars, Grid 1 start the event, then Grid 2 and so on until 18 individual races have been completed.

Some more photos of the owners, the competing and spectating Talbots.............