....continued from #MP39.

These five pages of My Pics feature photos from Reflexia's unplanned road trip around France and Spain in 2008. The full story appears in the Articles section for ease of reading. It contains all the same pictures as displayed on these pages, but with a comprehensive write-up.

Click here to read the full article, or here for a PDF version that may be more easily viewed / printed.

Before leaving Donostia, I stopped off at Asier's workplace, where he spared me half an hour of his time after negotiations with his boss. We nipped next door to a hotel for a quick coffee, over which a last few sentiments were shared about the Renault 4. Outside in the continual rain, I attempted one speedy snap (above), to try and capture both our cars together in one shot.

The 'Red Devil' had been in Asier's family since new, before being passed on to him in the late 1990s, so it was very special to him. And of course, it had the desired 'SS' number plate. He regretted having to sell any of his cars, but he would rather part with the immaculate blue one than see the Red Devil go. For now, though, it was parked up at his workplace and out of action most of the year round, whilst his other Renault alongside was used for most of the daily run-arounds.

I set off in the GTL and headed north through Bayonne, then veered eastwards on the way towards Toulouse. Along the route, I passed another Renault garage, one of which seemed to exist in practically every French village. This one, however, had two Quatrelles sitting for sale on its forecourt (below).

The cars were of course secondhand and belonged under Renault's Occasions banner, alongside other discarded old favourites. This particular garage was located somewhere near the village of Cauneille on the N117, but it was rather in the middle of nowhere. As I pulled over, a man I assumed to be the garage owner was leaving in his Kangoo for the lunch hour. He seemed equally bemused to spot my right-hand drive R4 opposite his garage so far down in the south of the country.

I parked outside the garage which was closed during the break, and examined the twin white opportunities in more detail. One was a 1982 TL in rather poor condition, at 500 euros. It certainly didn't look like it would give anything more than another year or two of life and probable grief, before rotting away. The other was a 1992 Savane TL model, one of the last produced, and now commanding an exotic fee of 2,800 euros. However, I wouldn't have described its general condition inside and out as startling, and it had done 151,000 kilometres. For such a high price, I wasn't tempted to swap.

Whilst continuing my trek through France, I passed a few other Renault garages that had Quatrelles either taking pride of place at the front or being hidden away at the back, including a few vans. This corner of France still seemed to have both the saloons and the vans in plentiful numbers. I arrived in Toulouse later that evening, where I rested for a couple of frozen winter days between bouts of intensive driving.

Pictures from this trip continue in the next entry, #MP41.