Day 2 : And it all started at sunrise …

The sun shimmered, its golden light reflecting off the dazzling beauties lined up on Place Vendôme for the official start of the 10th annual Princesses’ Rally.

After a brief tour through the City of Lights, totally traffic-free on this Pentecostal Monday morn, the record-breaking 62 teams enrolled this year hit the open road, headed for Contrexéville. While the grand adventures began at dawn, the first big thrills came as the caravan crossed through the lovely Aube region.

All the excitement gave our princesses quite an appetite, so no one complained when we made our first stop for a country luncheon at the ‘Logis aux Maisons’ in the Chaource region. And of course, the first series of toasts were made with Laurenti Champagne, sponsor of this extra special ‘birthday vintage’ event. Following the afternoon’s three new regularity sectors, everyone headed for the famous ‘water town’ for a well deserved rest at the ‘Domaine de Contrexéville’.

Petrol panic prevention.

Among the various worries our princesses had to handle with grace and wit on this first day out, the ominous empty tank was the most frequent of all. Some of the teams had to sneak away from the Place Vendôme extra early to fill ‘er up. Others made an essential side trip in the middle of nowhere to quench their car’s thirst. But everyone found a way to keep cool and have fun without getting stuck in a lurch.

Slight adjustments, among friends.

Several of our princesses semed to have lost their way right from the get-go. The Panhard no. 3 with Hermine de Clermont Tonnerre and Valérie Benaïm, as well as the Fiat 500 with Brigitte Bogucki and Dominique Lopez-Eychenie and the Triumph TR3B with Nadine and Alain Veran, all racked up major penalty points due to late arrivals at the first few RS in the Yonne forest.

Ten straight years, ten different nationalities.

In addition to the record number of participants in this anniversary edition, the Princesses’ Rally organizers enjoyed another birthday present: increased international flavor! Each year, the event welcomes a broader range of princesses from lands far and near. So along side the French and British and Belgians, this year we rubbed shoulders with Norwegians and Italians, Russians and Americans… and even a princess from Zimbabwe! Clearly the sky’s the limit as the irresistible charm of this event grows each new candle on the cake!

Betrayed by their retrotrip.

Hailed as some of this year’s most likely to succeed in the Historic category, Carine Sicart and Michelle Paques ran into a bit of trouble with their retrotrip during this first stage of the event. Initially convinced she’d shine in this particular event, Michelle Paques, the most lauded co-pilot of this year’s line-up had to swallow her pride and accept a 5th place spot at the end of the day with a whopping 36 penalty points.

Like night and day.

For Florence Dehaine and Eva Jaerlhing, no two years are quite the same. Last year, they never made to lunch, yet this year they were the first to arrive at ‘L’auberge aux Maisons’. Better still, they were early! Taking advantage of the extra time to sip a glass of bubbly offered by our sponsor Laurenti Champagne. One more note: before the first RS of the day, they had to change the battery of their Panhard Junior at the toll booth along the motorway – quick as a whistle!

A zig without a zag?

To spice up this relatively straightforward warm-up phase, the organizers decided to position the intermediary finish lines at somewhat tricky spots. And although the majority of our princesses didn’t get tripped up in the trap, a few fell in head first, like the little Honda S800 Coupé with Nathalie Corbel-Gheslin and Aurelie Litzler, slapped with 120 penalty points on the third RS for missing the final finish line, tucked behind a tight left-right “zig-zag” turn.

Magnum cum laude for our Princesses.

The first to park their car at the ‘Auberge les Maisons’ for lunch were the delightful Dutch duet Mirjam Wolters and Alike De Jager (Trimph TR3A). To reward their stunning performance, the CEO of Maison Laurenti, Monsieur Dominique Laurenti himself, offered the ladies a magnum bottle of his finest champagne.

In the Princesses’ own words:

Nathalie Bourgitteau-Guiard (Fra/Alfa Roméo 2000 GTV Bertone): “A magnificent first day out. My teammate, Janie, was marvelous. It was mostly a question of getting everything into synch: the car, the crew and the navigational equipment. Tomorrow’s when the real competition will begin. Excellence seems to reign over this 10th edition of the Princesses’ Rally, already suffused with an extraordinary level of conviviality… And it’s not because we won this first round that other champions won’t rise to the top in the days to come!”

Cindy Fabre (Fra/Mazda MX-5): “The day was off to a rough start for us: no tripmaster, no chronometer… we were driving blind. Eventually, we straightened things out and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we came in first place among the modern cars!”