FRANCE 2013

By the time the 25th Anniversary came around, it was time to take the big step. Mexico and Belize had crossed international boundaries with record numbers of ralliers; by now, Europe was no longer a pipe dream, but actually a conceivable and realistic choice. At an early stage, people were told to save their pennies and the team of Rick Moore, Constance Luedicke and myself began to get to work. The theme; Impressionist Painters of the South of France; the locale, one I had actually scouted  a few years before; the whole of the Provence region, from Nice to Avignon. The destination: a castle to ourselves.

The rally was planned with several clever twists. Each team was a painter or his heirs in search of his masterpiece. Each clue on the sheet depicted another of the master's oeuvres, each with referential depictions that had visual elements of the next clue site. At every site, a clue card bearing a short clue rhyme was found, that once arranged with the remaining eight, in the correct configuration, was a depiction of the masterpiece in question. If the finished arrangement was turned over, its backing also shared the picture of the castle destination at Chomerac with a small thumbnail  map of the directions to it. At each site, a mini wine bottle served as an additional challenge.