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Retro Meus' Auto 2017: The Tati phenomenon

El Madine Lake has spent more than three decades providing a setting for the highest concentration in France of popular vehicles, with a strong French vocation, but also with the presence of brands from all neighboring or distant countries.

The days June 10 and 11, 2017, celebrating its 32nd Vintage Car Meeting and Market, the lake was invaded once again by waves of enthusiasts at the wheel of their simply old cars, without any pretense other than spending a pleasant weekend in an environment like the one you can breathe in French films of the XNUMXs.

When talking about French films of the 50s I am thinking specifically of the film 'Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot' (1953), directed and played by Jacques Tati, best known for his blockbuster film 'My uncle'.

Mr. Hulot He was the ideal representative of the French middle-class worker who launched himself unapologetically to enjoy the first paid vacations that were enshrined in the labor law of the neighboring country after World War II.

The French had to face this new phenomenon with another need not known until then: the democratized automobile for all social classes. The holidays mobilized human masses from the north moving south and an equivalent number of vacationers from the south moving north.

They grow old, but retain the essence

Those new cars are the ones that now frequent the Lake Madine meeting to a greater extent, they have lost their shine, they have picked up rust, the seats have softened and the wheels have lost their tread, but all have retained the same spirit of adventure, the taste for travel and put on your sports shirt as soon as you disembark.

The time of the first paid holidays is revived each year at Lake Madine, with participants transporting tents, gas cylinders and wood blocks to grill chops. This year they were able to do it due to the prevailing good weather, more typical of Benidorm than northern France.

In that popular party the protagonist is the car, to which all the attention is paid in recognition of the past and present faithful services rendered to one and, on occasions, several families.

The readers of The Escudería have more extensive news of what happens in June in Lake Madine, since we dedicate to the event two articles in 2014 and 2015.

Retro Meus Auto '2017: Back to the Lake

Two years later, we have seen fit go back to the lake to check how the things that matter most to us continue, that is, the presence and use of cars that have been on the road for more than thirty years, even on long trips.

The reader will be kind enough to refer to the articles mentioned to avoid falling into repetitions, thus allowing us to focus on the current issue of this edition.

Something that we had not indicated until today is that the small municipality closest to the lake is Hedicourt-sous-les-Côtes, but the reader does not bother looking for it on the map, because you will find the lake first. Hedicourt has a modest population of 170 inhabitants without fear of traffic jams, except for one weekend a year when Hedicourt is transformed into a large capital by taking care of the mobile fleet that invades it.

Despite the location of this automobile festival in Hedicourt, the organizers are based in Verdun, a city remembered for the battles of the First World War. Fierce fighting took place in the surroundings of Madine, so it is not uncommon to admire crawler track vehicles and troop transport trucks.

Reviewing the highlights of the weekend, while Rafa Nadal made mush to his rivals in Paris and many people could not get away from the television screens, we found ourselves on the ground with a abundance of interesting cars. Not because they are mostly known brands, they stop being for one reason or another.

What do you think?

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Written by mario laguna

Mario Laguna, author of the book "The Pegaso Adventure", scholar and observer of the history of motor racing, brands and characters. Regular visitor to automobile competitions, whether of current or historical categories, international contests of elegance, lecturer ... Read more

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