Billed as the premier salon for those with a love of old cars, this is a great show to attend. L`Aventure Peugeot Citroen DS have a massive stand at their “home” show and will have some great exhibits on display from the Museum as well as from many French Peugeot Clubs. Autojumble,Books,Models, Auctions,Planes,Trains,Boats,Motor Bikes, Military and not to mention all the other Marques that are on display make this an amazing event!. For further information: www.retromobile.com
My annual visit to Retromobile didn’t get off to a great start as it was snowing in Paris and a lot of public transport had ground to a halt including the train ticket office at Charles De Gaulle which was closed! The queues for the ticket machines (only half were working) were very lengthy and consequently it took one and a half hours to get a ticket! It would appear that we are not the only ones that are paralysed by snow. The next morning I met up with friends from Beaulieu at breakfast who described the chaos of getting a taxi outside the Show back to the hotel the night before and the fact that the first open day was “very quiet”. Luckily Paris had got their act together and we got a taxi no problem to the show which was great. Once inside I made my way to the L`Aventure Peugeot Citroen DS stand which was celebrating 30 years of The Museum being founded. The stand was large and split into three areas covering the Heritage of the PSA Groupe. Whilst there was no “real” statement Peugeot on the stand as in previous years the stand was very interesting with a display of Presidentialle Citroens including a picture of The Queen with President Mitterrand on a State visit to France sitting in an official Presidentialle SM There was a large Museum Boutique area which also had the PR Classic parts department in attendance. It was also great to meet up with several other friends from sister clubs in Holland and also on a personal note with another T16 owner Ali Serpen and Freddy Gruson from Switzerland who is the keeper of the T16 register There was however several fantastic examples of the Peugeot Marque on other stands at the show with one that is quite simply the best Peugeot I have ever seen, a unique Type 176 S for sale at €600,000! The car was a one owner car with a one off body which spent its life in Spain and after being found in a derelict state was restored to a fantastic standard. So much so the organisers of the Pebble Beach Concours had been on the stand and issued an open invite to the new owner to take the car to the USA. For those of you who might not know, only the very best cars in the world are invited to Pebble Beach and it just showed how good this car is. If it was me I would want the car in the Museum collection as it is so unique and so rare it deserves to be bought by the Company! Other cars I saw dotted around was a 203 D`arlMat, a 1903 Bebe (£85.000 for a London to Brighton car), a lovely LHD 205 Rallye on the 205 GTI Club de France stand, a 402 D`arlMat roadster, a 203 D`arlMat DS, the 208 Pikes Peak car, a very special 406 Coupe Settant`Anni limited edition and a 404 Estate used by the Ferrari Formula 1 team complete with picture of Enzo Ferrari and Sir Stirling Moss sitting on the back bumper! Other than the Type 176 S which I was completely gaga about there were loads of other fantastic cars on show such as a brilliant Panhard concept car from 1945 (which was totally outrageous but is exactly the reason why I keep going back to Retromobile), a fantastic collection of Abarths, Alfa Romeos, “Oiseau Bleu” a Simca cabriolet based car built by Roger Baillon, a 3 wheel Maratuech designed like an aircraft and 3 of the 8 known Wimille JPW cars which had a three seat passenger compartment with a central steering position. Whether its cars, tanks, bikes, autojumble, toys, books, boats or aircraft there really is something for everyone to enjoy at Retromobile. You REALLY have to go at least once in your life!
