Chrisbassett
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I took a side-trip during my recent dash round europe to visit the French National Motor Museum (or the Cité de l'Automobile as they call it) in Mulhouse near the German border. I promised a report, so here goes:
Website : http://citedelautomobile.com/en/home
The museum has over 500 cars ranging from very early horseless carriages through to a Veyron. The initial collection was private, but is now in public hands or at least funded by public money. Entry was 11€.
the collection reflects the tastes of the original owner, and as you might guess by the location, it concentrates on French and German cars (there's half a row of just early Mercedes and even more Bugatti's), but has a good selection of others including maybe 20 Maserati, a few more Ferrari and maybe the same Alfa. Quite a few little gems of other marques as well.
The cars are mostly housed in a big old factory, arranged in 9 rows ordered roughly by date, so you can follow a path from old through to new (ish). There's a separate room for racing cars and a veyron sitting on its own looking special. A few other exhibits show how cars are made etc.
I had a good time there, saw some lovely cars and even bought a nice Gordini cap to keep my head warm in the Spyder.
It's quite a dry exhibition, but it was practically empty on the day I visited, so no atmosphere. I wouldn't recommend going too far out of your way just to see it unless there's something in particular you are interested in, but it is worth a visit if you are passing by down the east side of France or the west of Germany (e.g. if you're going to the Black Forest it's very close by).
Here are some of the highlights (I concentrated on the Italian side of things). Look out for the little "bug" - it's actually a Merc designed by Porsche!
oh, and if I could drive away in one of the cars, it would be either the Maser in picture 9 or the alfa in picture 15...very hard to choose between, but the Alfa is just so pretty its painful.
Website : http://citedelautomobile.com/en/home
The museum has over 500 cars ranging from very early horseless carriages through to a Veyron. The initial collection was private, but is now in public hands or at least funded by public money. Entry was 11€.
the collection reflects the tastes of the original owner, and as you might guess by the location, it concentrates on French and German cars (there's half a row of just early Mercedes and even more Bugatti's), but has a good selection of others including maybe 20 Maserati, a few more Ferrari and maybe the same Alfa. Quite a few little gems of other marques as well.
The cars are mostly housed in a big old factory, arranged in 9 rows ordered roughly by date, so you can follow a path from old through to new (ish). There's a separate room for racing cars and a veyron sitting on its own looking special. A few other exhibits show how cars are made etc.
I had a good time there, saw some lovely cars and even bought a nice Gordini cap to keep my head warm in the Spyder.
It's quite a dry exhibition, but it was practically empty on the day I visited, so no atmosphere. I wouldn't recommend going too far out of your way just to see it unless there's something in particular you are interested in, but it is worth a visit if you are passing by down the east side of France or the west of Germany (e.g. if you're going to the Black Forest it's very close by).
Here are some of the highlights (I concentrated on the Italian side of things). Look out for the little "bug" - it's actually a Merc designed by Porsche!
oh, and if I could drive away in one of the cars, it would be either the Maser in picture 9 or the alfa in picture 15...very hard to choose between, but the Alfa is just so pretty its painful.
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