“We have been preparing for this to happen for several years. » The organizers of the Bouchon de Blois were therefore not surprised to see heavy rain falling, Saturday May 4, on this event dedicated to classic vehicles since 2017.
“With what we’ve been dealing with since (SATURDAY) Morning “Philippe Plantier, president of the organizing association Valve, was not unhappy to see “so many people”. Because if the spectators were much fewer in number a year after a sunny 2023 edition, many made the effort to go out with their umbrella. The weather did not discourage the collectors who exhibited “around 350 vehicles”built between 1910 and 2008, in the city center of Blois and on the Jacques-Gabriel bridge.
More than 300 vehicles were exhibited in the city center of Blois.
© (Photo NR, Sébastien Gaudard)
The latter also hosted the first Bouchon de Blois elegance competition. Fifteen vehicles paraded before a jury responsible for deciding between them using several criteria such as the originality of the vehicles, their state of presentation, their harmony with the participants’ outfits or the quality of their presentation.
Concours d’Elegance and Childhood Memories
Because if the rain got the better of the microphone, certain candidates stood out for their disguise and their acting. We were thus able to see Ghosts (the film was also screened on Saturday evening at the Lobis), J.-R. and Sue Ellen from the series Dallas and characters straight out of Bowler hat and leather boots, driving a 1963 Jaguar MK2.
This car also won first prize in category 2 (1), which concerns vehicles dating from 1957 to 1975. “It was a legendary car and the fastest sedan in the world when it came out in 1961,” explains its owner Alain Pradal. This former journalist, who notably passed through Le Figaro Magazinetook on the challenge “to acquire the cars that made me dream of when I was a child”.
Alain Pradal’s Jaguar MK2 won one of the categories of the Concours d’Elegance.
© (Photo NR, Sébastien Gaudard)
A few meters away, Guillaume and Éva looked at the cars with the eyes of enthusiasts. Both traveled more than 500 km from Grenoble to discover the Bouchon de Blois, which they had heard about on TV: “There is always a super nice atmosphere at these kinds of events, which are worth the journey. »
And the rain did not dampen their enthusiasm. “We would have seen less clearly if there had been more people”, they smile. As for the birth of their passion, Guillaume evokes “the history around it”, but also “smells and noises that you don’t find with modern cars.”
Cars that are “part of heritage”
Boris, a Blésois who came with his red Lada 2104 from 1988, speaks of “nostalgia”. “This allows you to see that there were other cars before,” he specifies, echoing the words of Philippe Plantier, who speaks “a duty to remember”. “This is part of the heritage to which we are attached”, adds Marc Gricourt, mayor of Blois. The city also signed a charter on Saturday which makes Blois a city friendly to vintage cars.
This charter, which is intended to extend across the whole of Loir-et-Cher, will facilitate the reception of these vehicles in town, in particular by allowing them to park at Place du Château for the start of a rally. Also planned are the posting of historical circuits on the City site or a relay to mechanics and crafts “to facilitate repair in the event of a breakdown”.
For Marc Gricourt, highlighting these cars is not incompatible with “the approach, which exists everywhere on the planet, of research, of innovation, for less polluting vehicles”. Because this “are collector vehicles, which do not circulate daily in our cities. I believe that it is also important to accept this approach which recalls an international and particularly French heritage.”
The Bouchon de Blois ends this Sunday, May 5. On the program: car exhibition on the Jacques-Gabriel bridge, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., before the departure of the Bouchon ride towards Ménars.
(1) Category 1 (1918-1956) was won by Philippe and Françoise Guy with a 1946 Alvis while the first prize in category 3 (after 1975) went to Benjamin Kloss for his Mercedes 300 cabriolet.
