Tag Archives: France

1956 Family Roadtrip from Sydney to Paris… by Lambretta!

Posted on by
2

1955-bombayPeople have done amazing things on Lambrettas – pushing these machines to their limits across many miles. This family road trip – 12,000 miles from Sydney to Paris – and then on to Margate – has got to be up their with one of the most ambitious and adventurous.

tripThe trip took over two months – starting 3,000 miles across Australia – through Pakistan, Persia, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey – then into Greece, and across Europe (Yugoslavia and Italy) to France. An ambitious enough trip for a rider with a support crew – but dad Guy took his wife Beryl (originally from Margate) and his children Charles (4) and Yvonne (2). Wow!

Voyage Sydney

Guy custom built a cabin of marine plywood and canvas that could transport the four of them and their kit – and transform into a sleeping unit. Cosy! The ‘base scooter’ was a Lambretta Lambro 150 FD, with a top speed of just 25mph.

1956bm-0062The trip included heatwaves, floods, frosts, dust-storms, monsoon rain. The scooter suffered punctures, over-heating and wet petrol – but their ‘put-put’ got them there in the end!

1956bm-0009For the full story, I’d highly recommend visiting the website that chronicles the journey – www.montin.fr/lambretta – where there’s a wealth of original newspaper clippings and photos from the trip.

1955bm-0080A big thank you to Charles (the then four year-old boy in the pictures!) for permission to use the imagery featured in this post.

gate_of_indiaI’ve also got another amazing Lambretta adventure story to tell – this time an ‘escape across Africa’ – stay tuned for that one!

 

Advertisement

Beautiful little film about a lost Lambretta.

Posted on by
2

A lovely little movie about a family Lambretta that was lost for twenty years before being found again. There’s English subtitles, if you’re French isn’t quite up to scratch.

Via the marvellous Petrolicous site

Scooter & Style Magazine, #6

Posted on by
Reply

Its always a pleasant moment when an A4 (ok, C4, envelope pedants) envelope drops through my letterbox with a french postmark… It’ll be the next issue of Scooter & Style magazine, hot off the press…couv6
Issue No 6 is a quality product as ever, with another wonderful scooter collection (it seems every other Frenchman has a garage full of rare and beautiful scooters!) a pristine GP 200 Electronic… various Vespa related articles, and a Maico Mobile feature. But perhaps this issues standout feature is a comparison between two Peugeot scooters… the classic s57, and it’s modern counterpart the Django, both of which have featured in my blog recently. (0k, the Django was a custom build by Deus Ex Machina) .

I’ve got to say, the Django – which I initially wrote off as just another, bandwagon jumping retro styling exercise – is growing on me. After all, Peugeot has a proud history of producing scooters. If Vespa can continue to trade off their heritage, why can’t other marques?

Anway, back to Scooter & Style… another strong issue… if you want to widen your reading materials from the obvious, I’d highly recommend it. You can get it online, here.

 

Sticky’s Latest Adventure – Twin Town Courier

Posted on by
Reply

Twin Town Courier Logo

Ok, so I promised you a post on the Rimini Lambretta Centre’s 25th Anniversary Open Day… and it’s coming. But there’s a scooter adventure that’s going on as I type that you should probably know about… Sticky’s on another of his “European Tours”. On a 1968 Lambretta. Partly because he loves Lambrettas, but also because doing this on a motorcycle would be too easy.  As  he says “The discomfort and unreliability of a vintage scooter adds an element of uncertainty and adventure to the trip. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.”

StickyLeavesNuneatonHeading out from his home town of Nuneaton on the 1st of the month… after being seen off by the Mayor… he’s heading round Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, The Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands… phew, I’m exhausted typing that lot, never mind riding it!)

FullyLoaded

And there’s a big idea behind the trip – Twinning – and to quote the man himself “The idea is to explore the concept of town twinning, and to link the towns involved by acting as a courier delivering photographs from local newspapers and councils to their twins and sisters in other countries.” His long term goal is to write another book about his experiences (If you haven’t read Frankenstein Scooters to Dracula’s Castle you’ve missed a treat).

Andorra-2As I type, he’s in the Pyrenees, heading towards Roanne in France, before heading off to Italy. He’s spending at least one day and one night in each town he visits.  Check out his route below, and if you can give him any support  in your country (I know I have readers in all of them!), please do! You might even end up featuring in his next book! Check out the full story on his website StickyFeatures.co.uk and follow him on Twitter @StickyFeatures or on his blog for the latest news.4789452_orig

I’ll keep you informed of anything I hear of his adventures, and show you his route back when he completes the first part of his journey.

Good luck fella… ride safe, and I hope your trip doesn’t have too much discomfort and unreliability!

There’s there’s a Willam… there’s a way

Posted on by
3

LawillWillamI’ve written about these little lambretta powered microcars a couple of times before… (here and here if you’re interested). One of my readers, Olivier, has flagged up that there’s one for sale over on this french auction site, sitting at under a thousand Euros at the moment. So if your looking for something a little bit different, with four wheels rather than two, and you fancy a trip to central France, check it out!LawillWillam-2 LawillWillam-1

Sahara D’s

Posted on by
2

Sahara D'sI had this fantastic sent to me by Carlos from the Lambretta Club of South Africa, (thanks Carlos!) It’s of a couple of French guys (although I think they actually may be from the french speaking part of Switzerland, from the writing on  the ‘topbox’ flag on the laid down Lammie)… on route from Lausanne to “le Cap”. The pic was taken in the Sahara! That’s quite a trip! Carlos reckons it was sometime in the ’50’s. I love their style… baggy trousers, a pair of stout brogues, beatnik beards and a nice tweed sports jacket for when it gets a bit chilly. They bred ’em tough in them days.

Thanks again Carlos, and Andy for forwarding it on. If YOU have any old Lambretta shots, I’d love to see them, and post them up here.

Le Voyage Exceptionnel – EuroLambretta Avignon, The Movie

Posted on by
2

So here’s the mystery. I’m sure I posted this video ages ago. Back in June in fact. But there it was, when I went into my “Dashboard” (WordPressers all know what I’m talking about) sitting in the “Pending” category. So if you’ve seen it before, apologies, but not too many, as I’m sure you’ll appreciate the opportunity of seeing it again. I’ve since posted an article about Woodsy’s fine still imagery that you can check out here, if you missed that.

From Manchester, England to Avignon France. And Back. By Lambretta.

If you only watch one video about EuroLambretta, watch this one. Brilliant visuals from the first frame to the last with a great soundtrack. Hit the full screen button, crank up your speakers to 11. If you don’t want to sign up for the next Euro after watching this, there’s something wrong with you.

This is the best scooter video I’ve seen since this one. In fact, I think it’s better.

You really wont believe this.

Posted on by
1

Look what turned up at EuroLambretta in Avignon. I’ve seen it all now.

I’m not going to comment much on this, and the guys at Lambretta Club de France are going to post a full picture set soon… so just sit back, check out these few images and have your mind blown.970937_464268956992548_540892458_n936998_464921640260613_573224549_n601927_464923653593745_2000583273_n954730_464964120256365_1485118549_n

I think the technical term is Paramotor. Powered paragliding (PPG). Powered by an open framed Lambretta. My gob is smacked. My ghast is flabbered. Amazing. I want a go… I think!