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This page shows a collection of photos contributed by Frans van Oostveen,
from the city of Tiel in The Netherlands.
Until the seventies of the last century Tiel was the centre of the
fruit processing industry of the country.
In the last decades the city has been converted
to one of the most entrepreneur-friendly cities around.
The surrounding landscape however is still agricultural with orchards,
farmhouses, ancient villages and market towns with their church spires
in the estuary formed by the rivers Maas and Rhine.
An idyllic backdrop for a DS420....
The first picture shows his "grey lady" DS420 in a typical Dutch rural setting. This is car no. 1M3273, from 1976.
The following series of photos were taken during a short winter holiday
in late 2004.
The very scenic holiday destination was Cleiriach farm,
owned by Katy and Derrick Williams, near Llansannan in Wales in the UK.
But first things first: the trip from The Netherlands to Wales went via Coventry and Birmingham. A stop for coffee was made at the Corley Services near Coventry. Son and travel companion (aged 14 at the time) enjoys a hot drink at the services' parking lot. The grey lady is patiently waiting for her company to return. She takes two parking places; noblesse oblige.
Once past Birmingham, the scenery gets more beautiful as the trip progresses. Via Shrewesbury and Oswestry the Welsh border is crossed at Glyn Ceiriog, then come the Berwyn Mountains, and then back to the A5 just past Llangollen.
But near the end of the day, an arrival in the dark brought a hidden pitfall. The car was parked on what seemed a nice patch of grass, the luggage was unloaded, and the first night at the destination began.
Next morning the grass was icy, and the clay was slippery and wet. Too much for a heavy DS420. The cardboard behind the wheels is part of the efforts to get her on the road again, but to no avail. The car digs itself deeper and deeper. The earthen wall in the front, and the nose of the car pointing down, give insufficient space and manoeuvrability.
Farmer Derrick (with cap; sadly he died in 2006, aged 78) owns a choice of tractors. He even offered to dig up the earthen wall. But all this seemed either a bit risky for the limousine, or not providing enough clearance to continue. So it was decided to call the AA to the rescue, via her Dutch sister organisation ANWB. A Range Rover equipped with a heavy winch appeared on the scene. Initially, Frans had some doubts about the forces required to get the large limousine on the road again, but this equipment did its job seemingly effortless...
So here she is on the road (sic) again:
This picture gives a good view of the a-typical lay out of the
two-tone colour combination on this car.
The dividing line is not factory original, and most non-factory
colour division lay outs are really ugly. But this one looks smart!
Finally, another holiday trip brought a visit to Wappenbury Hall
in the small village of Wappenbury, South-East of Coventry. This was the
home of Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar Cars, who was more than
superficially involved in the design of the DS420.
Photos contributed in 2006 / 2007