Chamois 1965

Inaugural Chamois 2770: 205 riders conquer the Alps

Motorcycle touring, compared to racing and off-road, has always been the overlooked branch of the motorcycling family. This explains why, once again, the very first 1965 Chamois Rally received far less media attention than one might have hoped from the specialized press of the time, despite being organized under the aegis of the BMW Club of France.

In conversation with Jean Murit (right), the initiator of this gathering. The rider to his left, wearing a helmet, is the Italian Mario Artusio, who would create the Stella Alpina rally the following year, 1966. Note the chamois horns ornamenting the top of the headlight.

The magazine Moto-Revue nevertheless sent a ‘special correspondent’ on site: Pierre Meyer, a journalist specialized in speed racing and international Grand Prix events — thus assigned somewhat ‘out of his element’ for the Chamois 1965. To make matters worse, according to the harshest whispers among his colleagues, Meyer was a writer lacking talent...

Sixty years later, the only two eyewitness accounts we have preserved from that July 1965 gathering are precisely those of Pierre Meyer and a female rally rider from the Charentes, Mrs Y Gadras, on her own BMW 600.

Olympic ski champion Marielle Goitschel at the summit of the Iseran with her brand-new BMW R50, presented by BMW France and the BMW Club of France.

It should also be noted that a certain B. Boyer, then residing at 6, Villa Jocelyn, Paris (16th arrondissement), presumably a professional photographer, produced a full photographic report on the event. Upon returning from the rally, participants interested in photographic souvenirs could order and purchase them from him. Unfortunately, to this day, we have never been fortunate enough to find even a single one of Boyer’s images.

Though our documentary resources on the 1965 Chamois remain scarce, we are nonetheless fortunate to share here on this page the splendid colour photographs taken by our patriarch Jean-Marie Debonneville. ‘The Druid’ was, of course, present, having travelled all the way from his northern homeland on his magnificent 1000 Ariel Square Four.

On the road, under the Alpine sun, Debonneville’s 997 cc Ariel Square Four rests, its lagoon-blue body reflecting the serenity of the peaks.

Having now presented all the ingredients at our disposal, let us not delay further: Gilles Gaudechoux and I have carefully prepared and serve you here, on a silver platter, the full and complete account of what the 1965 Chamois Rally truly was.

Rally highlights

The inaugural 1965 Chamois 2770 Rally united 205 registered participants — from across Europe — Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, England, and France — each eager to celebrate the spirit of motorcycling high in the Alps.

The flags of European nations, flying high in Val d’Isère, welcome the international rallyists.

After converging on Val d’Isère, the rally’s most striking sight unfolded: a long, serpentine column of over two hundred motorcycles, each rider carefully navigating the hairpin turns one by one. The machines climbed steadily through alpine pastures, rocky slopes, and winding roads, finally reaching the summit of the Iseran Pass at 2,770 metres

On the road to the summit.

Leading the charge was the brand-new BMW, presented for the occasion to the rally’s guest of honour, Olympic ski champion Marielle Goitschel, who rode it herself.

A solemn moment: BMW France and the BMW Club, represented by Jean Murit, present Olympic ski champion Marielle Goitschel with a brand-new BMW R50.

At the summit, beneath the dramatic backdrop of snow-capped peaks, the riders gathered in reverent anticipation to receive a blessing before the chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges.

A view of the chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, captured through Debonneville’s lens.

French television cameras recorded every moment, capturing the solemnity of the occasion, the gleam of motorcycles lined up in orderly rows, and the mixture of awe, excitement, and camaraderie among the riders

The solemn blessing. Amid the crowd, the man dressed all in white is not an Alpine hunter in camouflage — but the local priest in charge of blessing the riders!

Once the blessing was over, the riders gathered for the honorary apéritif. Glasses clinked, toasts rang out, laughter and conversation filled the Alpine air, and the spirit of camaraderie and shared adventure was celebrated in full.

Testimony of Pierre Meyer

“I was in Savoie during the days leading up to July 11. Midweek weather was far from encouraging: showers followed one another relentlessly, and the forecasts even predicted snowfall measuring several dozen centimetres at the Iseran Pass. Bad news for the Chamois rally, I thought. Fortunately, on Saturday the Alps found themselves on the fringe of a disturbance that veered safely northward, and by Sunday morning a magnificent blue sky spread over the entire region.

At eight o’clock, after passing Albertville, I entered the Tarentaise, having left a little earlier the shores of Lake Annecy, where I had a base along the water’s edge. In no particular hurry and constantly on the lookout for photographic landscapes, I was soon overtaken by a few softly rumbling twin-cylinder machines heading briskly eastward. All right, I said to myself, here come the real ones!

The Alps in all their splendor, captured once again through Debonneville’s artistic eye.

Mile after mile, always following the course of the Isère, after the fine stretches of wide, smooth roadway as far as Moûtiers, came the narrow, uneven sections winding through the rocky defiles of Saint-Marcel and Bellentre toward Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

Then the road began to climb in earnest, skirting alpine pastures, typical Savoyard villages, and waterfalls heavy with water, before reaching the artificial lake of Tignes. One final gorge pierced by numerous tunnels, and the destination of the gathering appeared: Val d’Isère, already standing at an altitude of 1,800 metres.

The participants’ meeting point.

Just beyond the village, on the lower slopes of the Iseran, lies the campsite. There, a rallyist was doing his utmost to get his machine running again, having lost some time earlier an adjustment screw from a valve rocker arm. All the while, he clung to the hope of still being admitted to the summit…

At ten-thirty, right on schedule, a very large pack of motorcycles left the avenue of the cable cars.

On Val d’Isère’s cable car avenue, at the start of the Iseran Pass ascent, Marielle Goitschel waits for the main group of the convoy.

I had taken a shorter route ahead, to see things unfold. It was a genuine pleasure for the eyes. From my observation point, after watching the entire procession leave Val-d’Isère, I took great delight in following its steady climb. Stretching for several hundred metres and weaving in and out of the hairpin curves on the northern slopes of the Iseran, the Chamois riders’ column was a magnificent sight.

Riders from the column mentioned by Pierre Meyer in his testimony

Little by little, it rose in a powerful, resonant murmur, winding its way without haste or strain along a dusty track, conquering the 2,770 metres of the summit. There, it formed a semicircle before the chapel of Notre-Dame de Toute-Prudence, to the astonishment of many motorists, who wondered aloud why all the motorcyclists of France — or at least a very large part of them — had chosen to gather in such a place.

A semicircle before the chapel of Notre-Dame de Toute-Prudence’

Once everyone had settled in, I counted the motorcycles, including those parked off to the side. I tallied 186.

The majority were large-displacement machines, and there was something of everything: BMWs, Nortons, Triumphs, BSAs for the most part, along with a few examples of Jawa, Royal Enfield, Velocette, Terrot, Honda, Yamaha, DKW, and Guzzi.

Mrs Perrot from Nice on her 300cc Honda

There were even a handful of mopeds, monuments to audacity! One machine stood out in particular: a 1,000cc Vincent Black Shadow fitted into a Norton frame, the work of former Savoyard racer Besse.

The magnificent Norvin bitza (left) mentioned by the author; and of course many flat-twin BMWs (right).

A four-cylinder Ariel, looking brand new, attracted many admirers
[Meyer here is talking about Debonneville’s motorcycle].

Only one sidecar was present: a sand-gray BMW, registered in French Somaliland, whose owner told me it had seen extensive dirt-track use in Africa.

The military rider, posing at the summit of the Iseran Pass astride his BMW outfit registered in French Somaliland. If he really came by road, he was undoubtedly the rider who travelled the furthest.

As for the groups, the most deserving seemed to be eighteen friends from Bordeaux, who had come solely for the Chamois and who departed immediately after the blessing to return home.

There were, of course, many riders from Paris and Lyon, a strong contingent from the Bouches-du-Rhône, and solitary participants from nearly everywhere. A few Swiss, some Englishmen, and an Italian lent the gathering an international flavour.

The same French military rider and his BMW sidecar, registered in French Somaliland, this time photographed in colour on the streets of Val d’Isère by Jean-Marie Debonneville.

Fully faired motorcycles were few — fewer than twenty in all — divided between partial fairings and fork-mounted shields. Clearly, motorcyclists favour exposed engines and the sting of wind and rain over aerodynamic refinement and protective comfort.

A speaker, armed with a portable loudspeaker, gathered everyone together for the blessing at around eleven-fifteen, which was delivered amid rapt attention. As the speaker repeatedly called out: “Marielle! Marielle!”, it became clear that Olympic champion Marielle Goitschel had left the snowy slopes of the Pissaillas glacier, just a few hundred metres away — where many skiers were enjoying their sport — to make an appearance at the Chamois.

She was even mounted on a motorcycle; television cameras were present, it seems. What would eventually appear on the small screen? Earlier, Marielle had opened the pass road, riding the BMW that had been presented to her.

At last, the men and women whose efforts during the climb had left them thirsty were able to quench their thirst at the honorary apéritif, open to all who wished to attend.

A big grin and a raised glass — this rider shows that post-ride celebrations are serious business.

With this done, and Mr. Murit justly satisfied with the smooth unfolding of operations carried out under his guidance, the gathering gradually dissolved, each participant departing according to personal inclination and whim. Above them, a fine midday sun and an ever-magnificent blue sky continued to reign over the Iseran, making the surrounding snow-covered peaks sparkle.

The snow-capped peaks surrounding the Iseran provided the perfect backdrop for Debonneville to capture on slide film his blue British “iron horse,” which had carried him to the 1965 Chamois Rally.

Later that afternoon, as I once again delighted in the blue waters of Lake Annecy, I reflected: what conclusions could be drawn?

First, that gathering at the summit of the Iseran Pass is a bold undertaking, for in bad weather it can become an appointment with rain, slush, and cloud-bound mist. Only two days earlier, the pass had been temporarily closed to traffic due to snowfall. Next, that motorcyclists had traveled from far and wide for this single hour-long gathering, and that they deserve warm congratulations for it — and that it was most fortunate that a splendid sun presided over Chamois 2770.

BMW France and the BMW Club of France, represented by Jean Murit, present Olympic ski champion Marielle Goitschel, guest of honor at the first Chamois Rally, with her brand-new BMW R50.

Finally, thanks to the BMW Club of France for having conceived and launched this idea. And may Chamois 1966 see three hundred motorcycles or more at the Iseran Pass.”

Testimony of Mrs Y Gadras

“After equipping our two machines (my husband accompanied me on his 500cc), we were ready to set our course for Val d’Isère.

We set off on Saturday morning at 3:30am The skies over the Charentes seemed determined to jeopardize the 850 kilometres we had to cover. Indeed, a sharp cold caught us by surprise after Angoulême, and the uncertain weather caused some concern. But as the hours passed, conditions improved, and around midday the sun made its appearance, accompanying us for the rest of the journey, even lighting up the snow-covered peaks of Val-d’Isère, which we reached with joy around 6pm

Left: The author of this account, Mrs Gadras (left) from the Charentes, with Mrs Seurat (right) from Argenteuil, both on their BMW motorcycles. Right: Mrs Gadras (left) with Mrs Perrot from Nice on her 300cc Honda

All in all, the journey was excellent and might even have been very economical, for at every fuel stop the attendant on duty, seeing the arrival of those two BMWs — black saddlebags, riders clad in black leather — would fill our tanks and simply ask us to sign the fuel logbook! (He most certainly took us for guardian angels of the road.)

After negotiating the final bends and last climbs (the R69 was clearly enjoying itself!), an uncommon sight greeted our eyes: already a great many BMW riders had ‘blackened’ the sidewalks with their machines, and the sight almost made us forget the fatigue of thirteen hours on the road.

Shortly afterwards, what joy — mixed with a touch of surprise — I felt on seeing Marielle Goitschel riding her brand-new R50. I could only rejoice in being, for the moment at least, the only woman at the handlebars; I therefore offered her my warm congratulations, and by the following day we were already excellent comrades.

Marielle Goitschel (left) et Mme Gadras (right)

On Saturday evening and throughout the night, the motorcycles continued to arrive, rumbling up the hairpin bends leading to the campsite or filling the hotel parking areas.

On Sunday, at precisely 9:30am, all the rallyists gathered to climb the Iseran Pass, the main rendezvous point. Jean Murit gave the start, and proudly Marielle opened the road, followed by two other women: Mrs Perrot from Nice, on her 300cc Honda, and Mrs Seurat from Argenteuil, on her BMW R50.

At the starting line in Val d’Isère, Marielle Goitschel prepares to lead the procession toward the Iseran Pass

The ascent of the pass was truly a unique spectacle, a long black ribbon of motorcycles stretching over three kilometres. Here, motorcycling pride was truly in its element.

Then, upon arrival at the summit of the pass, the group of riders was blessed, and everyone went their own way, some immediately beginning the journey home.

The Blessing

This so successfully achieved day will surely give hope to the organizers, and perhaps we shall see a Chamois 2770 in 1966. I sincerely hope so.”

In Conclusion

Even six decades later, with the aid of imagination and thanks to the eyewitness accounts of Pierre Meyer and Mrs Y Gadras, as well as the various photographs — including the colour images by Jean-Marie Debonneville — readers can form their own sense of the atmosphere and spirit of the very first Chamois Rally of 1965. The first in a series of eight, it remains a landmark in the rich history of French motorcycle touring.

Text: Jean-Francois Helias
Testimonies: Pierre Meyer, Y Gadras
Photographs: Jean-Marie Debonneville, Gilles Gaudechoux