On behalf of my local museum of rural life situated to the south of Rennes here in Brittany I'm looking for holiday snaps of you and yours camping in France, in particular in Brittany and Normandy during the 1960s and early 1970s. The museum is presently running a temporary exposition treating the modifications to farming life that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. It's entitled “le Grand Espoir”. It opened just before Christmas and runs until the end of August this year.
See :
http://www.ecomusee-rennes-metropole.fr ... 03,fr.html
Apart from presenting the changes and improvements in farming techniques that occurred during that period it also treats improvements to the every day life of the rural population, housing conditions and transport etc.
One aspect that will be covered is private transport, my local club will be providing some French classic cars of that period on 29th April, especially Citroens. There was and still is a production plant very close to Rennes.
Another aspect that was evoked was the creation at that time of the “Camping à la Ferme” (Camping on a farm) system where French and foreign holiday makers could come and park their caravan or pitch a tent on a farm. This was very often a first contact between rural and urban populations. I pitched a tent for the first time in France in 1971 having come over with a Traveller and rather than going to a “camping municipal” preferred to use that system.
The museum uses old farm buildings and has several hectares of farm land. The idea is to set up a “camping” in an orchard and to have visiting French and foreign campers. We've got two caravans and cars already organised, hopefully a VW split screen camper, my Traveller + tent + another British car.
Would any of you be willing to share some of your old holiday photos of “camping somewhere in France” ? - we are going to make up a “holiday album” to present to the public on 29th April.
Please contact me by PM if you have anything you think may be of interest.[frame]
July 1971 - Traveller HFB610, somewhere in Normandy between Cherbourg and Avranches.