Stage 2 > Richard Mille Rallye des Princesses > Dijon to Evian-les-Bains
After a restful night at the Grand Hotel La Cloche Dijon, Day 2 of the Rallye des Princesses began (read about Day 1 here). The weather was again temperamental but with a beautiful 60km drive to the first regularity test everyone was in great spirits. Following both pilot and co-pilot preparation, oil checks and re-fuelling the Tripmasters were ready to begin.
Just over 85 cars left Dijon bright and early heading for the first regularity check point at Les Essards Teignevaux. The second checkpoint of the day was in Menetru before heading through Nona, Clairvaux Les Lacs and Messia before lunch at a rather magical location.
We crossed the Côte-d’Or and the Haute-Saône to arrive in the Jura. Our lunch rest stop was at Le Regardoir, a mountain restaurant overlooking the Lac de Vouglans. The break allowed any small technical glitches to be seen to by the 5 dedicated mechanics on hand to offer light support. Today’s lunch stop also gave me time to plot the road book as I was about to take my seat as co-pilot for the afternoon.
The third stage of Day 2 was the ‘Route des Sapins’. Driving at an average of 40-50km/h to keep to the road book timings, I was closely following a beautiful red Fiat 124 Spider from 1976. Remember, the distinctive feature of regularity rallies is that they favour adhering to a set average over all-out speed.
The smallest deviation shows up on the on-board instruments tracking your distances and speed. Attached to the gearbox output or wheel of the car, the Tripmaster is watching you. All the more reason to concentrate on your location at all times.
We had another beautiful drive with some rather moody weather leading us towards Lake Geneva. The road takes you to Annemasse and on to Thonon-Evian before the start of the 4th regularity check point. Another 18km across the mountain, the Col du Fou, and through Fessy.
We travelled through the specular woodland of the Cervens forest arriving in the ‘Vallée Verte’ between Cols des Arces and Col de Feu at 1117m. We descended down into the valley dominated by Mont Hermone finally arriving lake side in Evian-les-bains in Haute-Savoie.
We checked into l’hotel Ermitage with spectacular views of Lake Geneva before joining the other competitors for dinner by the Lake. The following morning drivers continued on their way to Courchevel, Pont Royal and finally arriving in St Tropez. Next year I hope i’ll be sharing the full adventure! Want to join me? Just send me a message via my contact page.
If you missed my report of Stage 1 of the Rallye des Princesses click here.
To see the results of the final stages head to the official Facebook page of Rallye des Princesses here.
For other rally LWSY adventures click here