By Simone Squire
“If you cannot beat them join them”. Well that’s what Yvonne and I did when our “boys” decided to treat their engines to a foreign trip for the Fête de la Vapeur at Athis de l’Orne in Normandy. Yvonne is a veteran of this expedition but as a novice I wondered what it was all about and this is my story.

On the Friday afternoon we all meet in the café “Le Lion d’Or” where to my amazement not a French word was spoken and it felt like entering an English pub! Was that going to be my promised annual French holiday? The first English person we meet remembered Peter as the one who cooked the pig at IMLEC; is it not nice to be recognised? Later that evening the wonderful and enthusiastic welcome of the organisers and a traditional French meal certainly made up for the early concerns.

Saturday morning the excitement started, getting to the site in good time, unloading and steaming up as quickly as possible; there was not a moment to loose! To my delight a few French steam addicts turned up and to my surprise even a couple of Belgian ones. I started to feel much more at home. The atmosphere was fun, I was really enjoying this.

Oh yes then there was the weather, some drizzle, a short sharp shower, a longer heavy shower, a continuous downpour but the English ones still drove round with umbrellas and offering rides to the courageous locals who had turned up. One of our passengers, a young girl, told me that she was used to the rides, she had come on previous years and when I asked her about the weather she just replied, ”Oh it is the same every year when you all come here, it rains”. That evening on the way to our hotel, I made Peter stop at Mr Leclerc and purchased a pair of “bottes en caoutchouc”.
Sunday morning, the sun was shining and off we went again, unloading, steaming up, offering rides to the many locals who had joined us. The French and the Belgian ones joined in this time; well it was sunny! Yvonne sat out doing her embroidery, I was managing a set of points; our French track marshal disappeared at 12.00 and returned at two o’clock, lunch you know, cannot miss that !

Everything was going so well but then suddenly the sky changed and yes you guessed it, my newly purchased wellies had to come out. While the engines were packed, murmurs started to go round the site; will there be another Fête de la Vapeur next year? Are the organisers prepared to take on the elements again? Will they tell us today?

The Fête came to its end with the usual speeches, a glass of bubbly and the announcement that next year’s meeting ………………… will be held on the third week-end of June. The sighs of relief could be heard all over the marquee!

Next year I will leave at home that good book that I did not open but I will pack my waterproofs, leggings, wellies and big umbrella. I will hopefully meet up with the new friends I made and you never know, I might also have a drive ……………es I got the bug.
Our member, Chris Orchard is also a member of the Northampton Society and he and his friend Peter Squire, a fellow member at Northampton made this visit to France with their wives Yvonne and Simone. Simone’s record of the weekend was published in the Northampton Society’s Newsletter and is reprinted here with their kind permission.