COLLECTORS MEETING  IN FRANCE

Here is a report of a visit  we made to Christian Lhermitte in Tours, France.

In November we made a trip to France to visit Christian Lhermitte, a Mitchell collector just as we are, we had this plan for a long time but never had the chance to do it.

Three collectors from Holland , Emile van Loon, Dries Hanzens and Jan Haanstra went to visit him in November 2010, we made this long trip by car, a very long drive, but with three collectors in the same car there  was a lot to talk about during this trip.

We left very early  in the morning from Zwolle to Tours,  ( 835 KM)  and we arrived after a save trip in the afternoon in Tours at Christian's house.

We had never met before,  and only had contact throught the internet and emails, so it was nice to meet in person, and we had a warm welcome in Christan's house with coffee and a very good lunch, meanwhile already talking about our passion " the Mitchell reels."

After we lunch we went to Christian's collection, and WOH, that was amazing, rooms filled with fishing reels made in France, and one room totaly dedicated to the Mitchell collection.

Christian had all reels displayed on the wall's of his chambers, sorted out by model and in lineage of the model, we had so much to see and to talk about,  that I do not know how much time we spent there.

Here is Emile pointing at the very first "Otomatic" reels in Christian's collection. :)

Here the reels they all had a tag with the serial number, nice job.

Christian had also a lot of documantation and it was nice to search in there to find some answers on the questions we had, and it was nice to see in what way all was documented.

Dries saw some nice old paperbags they used in the old day's in tackle shops with Mitchell advertisements, and was very suprised when Christian gave him one for his collection.

Dries with his favorite DUAL paperbag.

Christan's room were so filled with reels, that we needed a few hours to see it all, and even than we had the idea that  we had missed a lot , the information he had was so well documentated, that now we know for sure he is one of the best sources for  information on the planet, old brochures, old magazines, old papers, and a lot of old documantation from the Mitchell factory, that hold a lot of info about releases of reels,  and communication with the salesmans of the factory.

Picture: Christian, Jan and Emile looking at the reels.

Emile opening a reel.

Lot of reels to look at.

 We had a perfect time together, we visited Tours in the evening, visited the local fishing shop, and we had a social drink in the pub, after that back to Christian's house, where his wife made us a fantastic dinner.

Lot of French wine, French cheese, to much to mention, we had a perfect evening relaxing.

Late in the evening we went back to the hotel for a good sleep.

On Sunday another visit to Christian's house, more talking about the reels, and after that we had a long trip home.

For me a perfect weekend, all collectors, speaking different languages, but bonded by one passion.

The Mitchell reel from France.