In November, I had to attend a meeting organized by Monsieur Jean Beyl, Look’s founder and owner, with Gérard Rubaud, who, at the time, was Rossignol/Dynastar’s head of racing.
We were headed for Tignes, near Val d’Isère, a ski resort, where both the Rossignol and Dynastar Pro Teams were training ahead of a season of competitions. I didn’t know Mr. Beyl very well, except that I knew that he could be, at times, a bit eccentric.
At the time he was driving a Maserati Indy coupe. I wasn’t too excited to have him along for such a long ride. In fact, I was a bit apprehensive of being in such closed quarters for so long with my big boss.
As soon as we got going, he was fumbling with the car climate controls and couldn’t find an acceptable setting. That lasted the whole trip. He also was commenting on my driving by saying “You should have passed this car...” or “weren’t you entering that curve a bit fast?” “You need to give it more gas!” plus over and over “Eww! I can’t get that heater to work!”
I was just starting with the company and I found that experience to be pure torture, yet we got along well and we both made it to Tignes in one piece. Monsieur Beyl didn’t seem too mad at me and I didn’t get fired.
Yet, he didn’t choose to make the return trip with me; he probably wasn’t too impressed with my driving and suffered enough from Peugeot’s unsophisticated climate control!
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I can report a similar road experience with him..... however it was in his Maserati and he drove (we flew low mostly) back to Paris. my french was oh-la-la and his English, well you know.... he treated me to a great dinner in a very nice restaurant along the way, including a bottle of wine. which helped my French and made flying with him even more fun. he was very surprised that I ate calf's intestines (rognion de veau????) with the gusto of a real Frenchman, which I had become during my time with Madame Beyl, him and Phillipe Blime...
Good times, Thank you Jim and Karl....
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