Thoroughly enjoying a traffic jam

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A new concept in classic car events has turned out to be a huge hit in France. We are now waiting for it to spread its wings over the rest of the classic car scene.

In essence it couldn’t be any simpler: it’s just an awful lot of classic cars turning up at one place to create the traffic jams of days long gone when the whole of France went on holidays (notoriously in August) when there were no motorways and toll roads as we know them. It led to miles and miles of congestion in all those small villages. The Route National 6 and 7 (RN6 and RN7) were particularly notorious.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the RN7 was notorious for its huge traffic jams. Charles Trenet even sung about the phenomenon in his lovely song ‘Nationale 7’. Toll roads were nowhere to be found yet, so holiday traffic had to find its way through villages and towns. Because mass motorization got underway at the time, every self-respecting Frenchman wanted to travel to the south in his own car. The village of Lapalisse in the Allier department on the former RN7  flourished during this time, with all these vacationers having the necessity of a bite, to refuel or to buy some groceries.

But when the toll roads arrived in the 1980s, Lapalisse totally fell into oblivion. Until some years ago someone came up with the grand idea to relaunch the traffic jams of Lapalisse’s heydays, sealing off the town for a day completely for modern traffic with the aim of giving the economy a boost. The result stunned even the organizers: Lapalisse has now become a household name among classic car enthusiasts in France and abroad. The Lapalisse traffic jam has even sprouted similar events. Last weekend one took place in Arnay-le-Duc to celebrate the traffoic jams of the Nationale 6… Click here for an impression.

(Words editor, picture embouteillage-n7-lapalisse.com)

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