T Register 2024 Event Reports
Reports on the T Register’s 2024 activities, ordered by latest activity first
Mark Blomfield reports on the T Register’s first tour of the season, the Spring Tour to Normandy.
T Register Spring Tour to Normandy
Where to start? Probably at the 2023 Autumn tour in Ashford where we were trying to decide on a location for the Spring tour to Europe for 2024. Our normal Normandy Hotel was no longer available, so we needed a new idea. Several areas were considered and a suggestion from Bob Marshall looked like a good option. The Town of Bangoles de l’Orne is a historic spa town, with numerous hotels and a casino. The Hotel Spa du Beryl overlooks the lake in the centre of town, we all had lake view rooms with a balcony.
Travel arrangements are, as usual, made individually. We took the overnight ferry from Portsmouth to Caen/Ouistram along with three other crews, the Morgans, Warrs and new tour participants the Neals. Some crews had come over earlier and spent a few days exploring other parts of the Normandy Region. Others opted for a daytime crossing. We were at the hotel early to welcome everyone and the Monday was wet, windy, and very cold. As crews arrived it was clear that the hotel was doing everything in its ability to ensure our rooms were ready ahead of our scheduled check in time. Some of the navigators showed great fortitude and needed thawing out before they could even get their breath back.
We gathered on the first evening and our esteemed chair welcomed everyone, two virgin crews, and we toasted our absent friend, Sally, who was chief in organising the event. There were suggestions of places to visit; a Roman village, the velo rail, Mont St Michel and many more. We don’t organise a daily itinerary, so everyone is free to roam. Whenever there is a Spring tour there are stories to tell. Bill tagged along with us on day one, my navigator, distracted by the wonders of Normandy directed me down a right-hand turn. The dead-end single-track road had just been used by a tractor, laying a thick layer of mud. As it was a dead end we had to run the gauntlet twice. I think Bill has forgiven us and finally cleaned the mud from his car.
We had a few loose bolts and water leaking from a TA exhaust downpipe, traced to a top hose, no car let us down. Clearly everyone had prepared their cars very well. Most of us headed home on the Friday, several crews took the opportunity to further explore further over the next few days.
We will be heading to Flanders next year and everyone is welcome, you don’t need a T type, you don’t need an MG we welcome any MGCC member who signs up.
