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Weekend in Paris - now with rain, tunnels and the statue of liberty


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The „Alten Franzosen“ went to France last weekend. Yes, that France where ISIS steals all R20’s and wearing a yellow vest is compulsory.

For a change this was not a collection trip, we decided to just look at cars, not buy them. We were even determined to refuse any free Tagora that might be offered to us! If you expected a collection report, stop reading now.

After last year’s attempt to go to the Retromobile show failed because Air Chance cancelled the flight, we tried again this year. This time there was indeed a plane waiting for us at 7 am at Munich airport. Not the nice new ones they advertise with that excellent view and plenty of fresh air,

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but a plane after all, it had even jet engines and coffees were served.

 

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Upon arrival in Paris, we found a wide choice of open shops and restaurants, so we decided to have a coffee and croissants before we head to town.

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We mastered the rail ticket vending machine only at the second attempt. Dear SNCF keep my 4,70€ and use it to buy machines that people can understand, ask London how to do it.  

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A tramway took us to our final destination, an uneventful trip. Looking out of the window, we noticed the amazing number of open shops, bars and restaurants they have in France.

 

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Not a single yellow vest was spotted, which was a bit of a disappointment. Finally, we arrived.

 

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We resisted the young men begging us to give them 15€ for an “official” ticket and paid 22€ at the “caisse”.

The show is big, very big, blisters guaranteed and there are lots of people.

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The usual vendors are of course present. Bidon, volant, phare, signs, whatever nobody needs is for sale.

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Then there are cars, many cars and most of them made in France.

Let’s start with the important things.

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New it is, 60km on the counter, nice!

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No lack of Peugeot’s.

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even electric

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There was a new car as well, actually quite nice, blue velour inside!

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This is the rear.

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There is a front as well, i may have that upside down though.

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Then there were Renault’s of the Turbo variant, did they do any non Turbos?

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Turbo is ok, but nothing beats PRV power!

 

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8 cylinders is of course better than 6.

 

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The model section was well stocked, I liked these, a bit pricey though…

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Time to get some food, as everywhere in France, there are open bars and Restaurants plentiful,

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this was 20€… slightly overpriced.

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A lot of nice cars for sale, none in our price range.

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The Luxury car dealers were present, most of them German or Dutch. At least they showed a nice variety of cars and not halls full of 911 and T1 buses as on the German shows.

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Why?

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Why, why?

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Why, why, why?

 

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Why, why, why, why?

 

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Have your plates made “sur place”.

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Big!

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Small

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Security was assured.

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Highlight of the show. This guy was the ultimate shite accessory vendor. “Eclator” gives you a super spark that will start your car no matter how cold or wet it is. The demonstration included the engine to fail to start, a demonstration of the super spark jumping out of the lead and of course the engine then starting instantly thanks to “eclator”.

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Nice show, nice day, definitely worth to go.

We concluded the day having a nice pizza at one of the many open eating places.

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.... more to follow.

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could you get up close to the cars?

no problem on most of the exhibits. Only exception was the stand of the Artcurial auction house, not much of a miss.

There were many people, but its not that you are being pushed around or can't take your time to see things of interest. Taking photographs sometimes was a bit difficult with somebody stepping into the picture all the time.

All in all it was allright, full but not packed.

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Part 2
 
Sunday came and it rained, even snow was sighted.

 

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So we decided to go to a musuem. The only proper car museum in and around Paris is the Simca Talbot museum at Poissy. We have been there before http://autoshite.com/topic/19753-tagora-birthplace/ and it is currently closed anyway.  "Musée des Arts et Métiers" we were told, has some old cars at exhibition. we decided to have a look.

 

We paid for subway day tickets to go there and maybe other places, but we felt a bit cheated. To start with, the trains wobble around on rubber tires making you sick.

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Must have been the result of a misplaced order or Michelin has somebody well placed at the city council. Just imagine a flat on one of these.

 

Then, even though you pay for riding trains, what you largely get is the opportunity to walk through endless tunnels strategically placed under the city.

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Ok, it doesnt rain down there, but the tunnels do double up as public toilets, what a smell...

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This was not the shortest of them.

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Not surprisingly, there was an open shop in one of the tunnels. Apparently this variant is to cater for kids and dwarfs not able to support the long walks without some food and drink.

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We finally arrived at the museum and shouldn't be left disappointed.

 

There are many nice cars in the main building, most of the of the prehistoric variant,

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but there is also rather modern stuff.

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Did you know the french built a Lunar robot?

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Not that they had any plan to fly to the moon, but its always good to have such a thing, isn' it.

 

This is the french variant of the iRobot, it obvioulsy won't clean underneath your sofa, nothing is perfect.

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Then you enter an old church with about the nicest arrangement of an car exhibit i have seen.

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Where else can you see a plane, rocket booster,satellite and the statue of liberty at the same time.

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Interesting way of propulsing a car.

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Now look at this, a single wheel bike with a radial engine for a driver plus passsenger. Beats the Megola in Munich by lengths. Keep this in balance!

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More old planes

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and plenty of nice cars

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Time to head to the airport. This place was open, but did not offer what we exepcted.

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Air Chance was on time, but we were nevertheless bit dissapointed, a yank car on the cover page of their magazine?

 

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Thanks so much for taking the time to upload all those photos (and process them!), it's very much appreciated! I'd love to go and see Retromobile one day but am not sure that I'd want to take one of my few scant trips back to Europe at such a time of year, when it's 30 degrees C here! I'm also not sure that I could cope with the density of people, as I haven't been amongst so many bodies for quite a while. That said, I used to go to the UK Motorshows in the 90's and coped but I can also sympathise with the people getting into shots whilst you click away, wasting 35mm film...

 

Also, I'm happy to say that I think that Peugeot E-Legend concept looks ace! I know there's a 0% percent chance it'll make it to showrooms but it's great to see at least one manufacturer recognising how excellent blue velour is. 

 

Excellent reportage.

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Go on Wednesday, there's half as many people. The weekend is actually horrible so I usually scuttle off and do something else. I took that exact same photo of the long subway tunnel on my way to the Arts et Metiers a few years ago! Paris Métro shuts all over the London tube I'm afraid - £1 a journey anywhere, nice comfortable trains, clean stations, easy to navigate.

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Do you do your own processing ?

I can see the film's not been through a big commercial lab, coz no notches...

(ex Kodak employee)

yep, C41 is easy these days, can be done at room temp, really not much different from processing b&w, just 3 bath instead of 2.

I use this stuff: It's cheap, 20€ a pack that yields 15 films and the softpacks have no air making it last forever.

https://www.nordfoto.de/analoge-fotografie/fotochemikalien/c-41-prozess/compard-digibase-c-41-500ml

RDC59.jpg

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