cybrepreneur
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

Villers La Ville Classic

Well, Villers La Ville Classic is not its real name, but it should be … with a proliferation of ‘Garden Party’ car shows (see Schloss Dyck in Germany, Chantilly in France, Goodwood in the UK … Belgium is ripe for its own offerring …
we’ve a location that is untouchable … the ancient abbey grounds at Villers la Ville, the after the revolution (the french one) it was sold off for scrap, but a lot of the stones were never carted away making as atmospheric ruin as one could wish, they do evening/summer night concerts, visiting here in the snowertime is magic with silent fallen drifts among the ruins … but today it is petrol and shiney bits!
and , oh, pain erupts … our little burgundy 911t bought from the doctor in San Francisco who bought it new, lives in San Rafael (northbay) still, she is a local girl still, proper, but a long lost 912 sibling makes the heart melancholy and fond , a local girl here also, she is original Belgium stock …
oh, and what a location for your wine tasting … getting set up for the afternoon rush, car shows, garden parties, why is it i like so much to get in early before the rush starts, there is a peacefulness of watching other do their urgent preparatory work … fascinating …
and what a location, you can enjoy the cars, if your traveling partners is less into it, or if you are struck a melancholy mood you can go out to wander the grounds and contemplate the old refectory … now newly mown with organic lawn mowers (aka ‘’geese’’)
ooh, but pretty bits are drifting in … there were many on the byroads getting here … stopping off at the patisserie to get a croissant or pain au chocolat, not for me , dieteticing again, sob!
there are two rallyes departed and returning this day, well, circuites, not really rallyes, these boys and gals are proper and well behaved (ahem!)
we are not posh, Chantilly and Schloss D are seriously up there on the fuddy-scale, 12+, our Belgium sets its sights on maintaining a respective posture, is something to see a 911RSR (r) slogging it through the mud to the grass …
ooh, and something a bit more, for the farm-boy at heart, old tracteurs indeed, this metal boy puffing and chuffing and making a beautiful noise to drown out the high strung little road machines , anyone gets stuck in the much and our fella is ready willing and waiting to pull absolutely anything anywhere …
is a favorite, i loved, loved, loved the young fellow reaching out here to kick the ‘tyre’, (got lucky with the camera), it was just that you wanted to come up and give it a fond pat (i did) …
aah, yes, the challenge du jour … ther are a lot more car events these days, a lot of garage queens in the finest of fettle, a lot of amazing cameras and photographers with incredible post-processing capacity … how -do- you take an interesting shot of one of the most photographed of automobiles these days?
maybe a grill-shot with a gravel park in front and an abbey ruin in back? do love the greenery on the second storey behind …
ooh, it is the day for burgundy lovers, (pinot noir anyone?), and a little French bulldog held by a lady of a certain je nes ? Oh yes, does it for me :-)
aww, tucked back of the behind is the sweetest lilttle bundle of curves!
photo wrks OK, yes? oh my, once upon a time … aww shucks, just enjoy the flanks on this honey …
awww, man, they could have wheeled a few special cars and displays in amongst the columns :-) calm down boy …whoof! … this event has room to grow, quite literally ..(and in the pocket book as well, entrance was a peasely 10e!, less than peanuts)
something for the Yellow Car Lover? was almost run over, stepped off the ‘road’to let the carriage and horses by, they were not interested in the road and wanted where I was, the original off-roading 4-by hvehicle … four wheels and two-times four feet!
hmmm, not sure if the flank-shots are working, colour and shiney agains the grey straits …
there is an olfactory interruption … these folks park near my office n Brussels ever Friday afternoon ( I did mention a dietetic program, yes?) … oh to heck with it all!
small bit of true history, the abbey was a going ‘factory’ of its day with the laborers working away behind closed doors. but the locals, the tradesmen and suppliers and wells as wayfarers needed a place to stay when they stopped off, so a hostelery was build on the side of the grounds, now it faces the entrance and as the arriving 2CV meets to fancy british iron leaving the host ‘tents’ are there selling hamburgers, beer, wine, ice-cream (all local made, bien sur) … etc …

history: http://www.villers.be/en/

etc … nothing to see here … move along … no-one sitting on a park bench slightly removed making his best ‘japanese’ at the food and making a local fella giggle .. move along now … nothing to see …
sigh, what a lineup, asn RSR (r), a 2.4 targa, and the sweetest little 356 super 1600 you would ever want to see … in an abbey founded in 1146 and operated until 1796, whoof!
grass is perhaps a slight bit too damp for a grass-sit and picnic … well, the salad stays in the trunk of the car for this day !
ok, i like the mixture, a 2CV, nice merc roadster, a traction avant, pretty piece of british iron …
did i mention wet? there are medieval gardens here, re-creations of the medical gardens kept back in the day, was a major hospital site , now a sleepy rose tries to shrug off the morning ‘belgian dew’ … is much like northern california, a temperate rain-forest’
oh pretty , Zagato bodied Alfa, oh you thought I meant the two ladies sortie-ing the little mercedes roadster, they were cute also … but a Junior Z? not — your — typical — event car …
and a snub-nosed bullet of a Dino 308gt? but the interior shot showed the dash label and the car-park, and NO CROWDS! try this in germany or france and you simply won’t …
all the businessn (why did o call it snub-nosed, from this angle it looks all sleekey … not …
something there is about badges … no, not that old movie trope, if you really want to be proper, it helps to have the correct vintage badges from long ago …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ

not new, not polished, and with specks of mud-splatter picked up from a morning rallye run and the roadways here .. no garage queens need apply ;-)
curves, just lovely greenery and greener curves …
as the troops gather for an afternoon run, well , a boy’s mind wanders .. have been well fed, the eyes have had a feast, a few pixels burned and laid to rest … good show …
but there is a stretch of ‘belgian macadam’ (cobbled streets) calling my name, my kidneys object, but pay them no mind …
was to the Somme cemetery recently , but there is a local bystop, the French had an enormous troup of Moroccans stationed here … most of them did not make it home, they fought, and fought to the last man, and are still here … is amazing to see the scripts on the headstones, how little there is to know of these valiant boys …

http://picturetank.com/___/series/1646691226684011a39268ff5ff2e929/en/o/VOJ_Ghost_warriors.html

there are covered lanes with smooth pavements, the curvy bits are un-photographed, I was wrestling with steering and concerned with rearwards sight distances (understood there were some fast machines carving up the roads this afternoon, no pileups please)
castles behind the horses (glad i had not eaten my chopped apple lunch, came in handy and was popular!)
and poppy fields …
back in town the local boys and girls were showing we’ve been doing Hogwarts since before J.K. was a gleam in her grand-daddy’s eye …

may i wish you a fine happy good morning from a fine belgian weekend excursioning in the backwoods with fine metal, old stones and a bit of whimsy (to say nothing of the ice-cream)