If Angers and Anjou inhabitants believed that Anjou Vélo Vintage (AVV) was an isolated initiative dedicated to a transportation mode formerly called "La petite reine" (The little queen), they discovered, thanks to the Financial Times (FT), a UK world famous economic daily newspaper, that was not the case. But, if similar events take place outside France every year, it's the AVV which attracts the most important number of cyclists, and from many European countries. But what are these people looking for?
According to the FT, they are pursuing a dream : a quick but intense immersion in the French atmosphere before the globalized world. All the pictures shot during AVV are true symbols of an era : cocktail of picnics, accordion's notes and of course, wine are ever-present. But if those symbols are more visible for foreigners, they look to be still very attractive for native participants, maybe nostalgic of a golden age vanished for ever.
Some of the French members of the "peloton", the FT editor Tim Moore interviewed didn't hide said it was good to revive the days before stagnation. One of the additional sorrows French readers of the FT will have is the relative disinterest of French for old bikes whom France was the craddle, while abroad foreign people still pay respect to "La petite reine".
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