Ardenne Experience - Classic Cars - edition 21
One and a half year after our first visit to Marche-en-Famenne, we have decided to take part in the Classic Cars Ardenne Experience in April 2022. It was the 21st edition of this event from 07 to 10 April 2022.
It was a really tough choice to make: giving in on the curiosity on what the weekend could bring or cancel our participation due to the bad weather conditions that were expected for the weekend (and so to protect the precious car). As often is the case with me, curiosity took the upper hand, so protected by the hard top we made the trip to the Ardennes in Luxembourg province.
Organised by the Quartier-Latin hotel, we were welcomed very well and guided to our rooms. There was a hint of smoke in the room and even before we could make any comment, another room was already prepared for us pro-actively! What a welcome!
The organisation of the Ardenne Experience also arranged photographers, so all pictures shown in this post are not mine but from "Reaktion" of Fabien Marinello and I have the permission received from the hotel to use the pictures. Funny enough, the feature image I have used is also the picture the photographer has used on the Facebook page. Hihi!
The concept is rather simple, but the experience is superb! You arrive on Thursday in the afternoon, receive a briefing and a diner, have a nice organised tour on both Friday and Saturday including lunch somewhere along the routes, coffee breaks, and in the evening excellent meals including drinks. On Saturday there is even a gala dinner, very nice! And a quiz, so you need to pay attention during the trips ;-)
The event is open for all types of classic cars, and we have seen many of them. This time there was only one(!) Mercedes, really surprising, but many Porsches, MG's, a Volvo P1800ES and even a Peugeot 205 for which I still wonder how the tall guy could fit into the car...
Of course the trips themselves are the highlights of the weekend, but you get so much more: learning to know new people and sharing experiences. Either on their car and the peculiarities but also what events are the must-visit ones, etc.
But you also learn how capable this car is under the different weather conditions. Ok, rear-wheel drive might not be optimal in slippery and snowy conditions, but fortunately we are not speed-rallying ;-) But many of the other cars had issues with the snow (no windscreen wipers...) and cold (no airconditioning so with the wet conditions they were not able to see through the dampened windows), let alone if they had a heater in the car. Brrr... Ok, I have to admit, most of these cars suffering from these circumstances were just slightly older...
So really an enriching weekend. And all this facilitated by the team of Quartier Latin. So thanks a lot to Caroline, Gaëlle, Bastien, Delphine and all the other people behind the scene!
After the weekend it was clear to us we would subscribe to the next edition that is scheduled for September 2022. So you can meet us there ;-)
Just to be clear: I am not related to the the hotel Quartier-Latin or its team, I just want to share my experience and excitement.
Ok, one picture we have made ourselves... As we all had been asked to make a funny/strange picture for a competition...
Not the photo quality as all the other pictures in this post, but regardless we were able to win a bottle of champagne with it! Cheers!