Taking 1970 Triumph Vitesse to France

[Puglet1]

I couldn’t find a “am I mad” section here so thought I’d start one.
I have a 1970 Triumph Vitesse convertible and am planning a trip to France.
We are planning a trip to Quimper and then go further South.
We will explore the coastal roads and take in the scenery.
The holiday will last for two weeks by which time we should be super fit as pushing one of these cars is quite demanding .
Has anyone else on here have any experience or tips to share with this type of trip ?

 

[Bouledogue]

If you get as far south as l'Aveyron (12), you're welcome to stick the thing back together in the workshop while I put the kettle on.

 

[Mick Annick]

We travelled around France in the Morgan for years before we moved here, it was great fun, the French do love an old car.

Stay off of the autoroutes, they’re expensive and no pleasure in an old car, particularly with the roof down. Do all the obvious stuff like getting good breakdown cover, a few tools and spares and the phone numbers of all of the forum Frenchies! Also get a map, much better than satnav for finding places of interest.

Plan your route and stops, and don’t be too ambitious in covering huge distances, enjoy the ride and the scenery. A lot of RN roads are used by trucks avoiding the tolls so don’t be surprised if they’re busy, the bonus is there’s usually decent truck stops on them where the plat du jour will sub 20€ and good, we use our nearest one a lot.

Are you camping, looking for hotels or renting a cottage? If the latter look at https://www.gites-de-france.com/ For single night stays we use Ibis or Logis hotels, they’re not the cheapest but are generally good.

If you don’t already speak a bit of the language learn how to get a beer/wine/coffee and something to eat, and how to ask for help.

And as @Bouledogue says, if you end up in Burgundy (Cote d’Or 21) do come and see us.

 

[Mick Annick]

And check the French school holiday dates - the roads can get very bad on the first and last days of the hols, particularly to and from the big cities.

This can help https://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/ hit the union flag in the top right corner…

 

[Nomad]

I often use "classics" from the 70s / 80s as daily transport, 500+ mile trips are not uncommon so I try to be prepared.
My essential spares to carry in the car include fanbelt (or 2), ignition parts if not electric (points, condenser, plugs), also a few lengths of wire & a small bag of random connectors (Lucas Prince of Darkness..), spare bulbs (a legal requirement in France?) gaffa tape, zip-ties, random jubilee clips. Also check if you need hi-viz jackets or anything else.

5L bottle of water, jumper cables / booster pack, oil for top-ups.
Toolkit inc various screwdrivers, spanners, socker set, multimeter, mole grips,
I also went through a spate of flat tyres so try to carry 2 spare tyres when I can - guess not an option for you as it's a small car.

Security? I always use a Disklock on the steering wheel if I'm leaving something old (with worn locks) on the street in an area I don't know.

My latest mod was to replace the sealed beam headlights with H4s, much brighter and easy to carry spares... Under £50 for a pair of 7" lights inc bulbs, postage etc from Bowers - I'm happy.
From https://www.bowerspartsonline.co.uk...ightheadlamp-halogen-h4-conversion-with-pilot

Have fun

 

[julianthegypsy]

And check the French school holiday dates - the roads can get very bad on the first and last days of the hols, particularly to and from the big cities.

This can help https://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/ hit the union flag in the top right corner…

Wow, I used bison-fute 20 years ago, it was brilliant then!
There's a fab municipal campsite on cap frehel. I found it by accident. My plan for where we were going was literally look on the map for "a crinkly bit" of coast, and it looked promising. I was right, it's superb!

 

[Misterg]

Clutch = Embrayage
Oil Seal = Bague d'étanchéité

HTH

(Don't ask me how I know...)

 

[indy4x]

When I finished college, spent 4 weeks with my girlfriend driving and camping around France in a Mk 3 Spitfire.

This would have been back in 1986 so the Spitfire would have been 27yrs old at the time

Don't know how many miles we covered as the speedo cable broke. The journey was

S Wales to London to collect girlfriend
London to Portsmouth
Ferry to France and meander down to Montpellier, Dordogne and onto the south close to the Spanish border and then meander back up

Even less room in a Spitfire than a Vitesse and we had our camping gear as well

Just carried a small toolkit, test light, jump leads, points, condenser, rotor arm and water. Few lengths of wire, insulation tape and some crimps plus 1l of oil.

A few weeks before heading off, the Spitfire got a really thorough check over and service replacing anything that was suspect. It was my daily drive so well versed in its peculiarities

Apart from the speedo cable breaking, I did have a cooling issue in the south where on long steep climbs it would get very very hot, close to boiling. But, it didn't have a full width rad that was fitted to some models which probably didn't help.