PARIS — There’s a scene in the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” where Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is tied to a chair when the turncoat femme fatale plants a kiss on his lips and says “that’s how we say goodbye in Austria.” A thug then walks up to him and socks him in the nose, saying, “und zat’s how vee zay goodbye in Germany!” Dr. Jones shakes off the punch and remarks: “I like the Austrian way better.”
I’m beginning to think I like the French way of car shows better. While I’ve never gotten a punch in the nose (or a kiss for that matter) at an American car show, I have trudged miles through mud and rain, gotten sunburned and bug bitten and eaten things, like fried Twinkies, at these shows that would make a cardiologist wince.
While making my way through the 34th annual Retromobile car show — which runs from Feb. 6 to 15 here at the Porte de Versailles — I stopped to enjoy a plate of cheese and a glass of Champagne. Others around me were eating bowls of mussels in a white wine, butter and garlic sauce and fries. While perhaps not any more heart healthy than fried Twinkies, you have to hand it to the French, it did have more style.
In addition to the food, there were some cars, too, with some 300 exhibitors. Many of the displays were from various French vintage-car clubs. As one would expect, the homeboys were out in force. Outside of France, one rarely sees many Simcas, Panhards, Peugeots, Renaults and Citroëns. Given the fish-like appearance and modest performance of many of these cars, it isn’t difficult to understand why. Nevertheless, there were multiple stands of these great French marques. Perhaps the most interesting was the Alpine display.
Alpine was a Renault-based French sports car that was successful in racing and rallying in the 1960s and ‘70s. Alpine’s most famous car, the A110, was often called a French Porsche 911. In addition to entire cars, there were several vendors selling just Alpine parts. Only when I got to the parts vendors and tool and car-care sellers was I reminded of every other car show that I’ve been to.
Imagine stepping into one of the black and white photos of great European motor shows that car magazines used to print — the ones with cars on raised platforms or stands with the name of the marque on a big sign overhead. Refreshingly, many of the cars on display were unrestored or at least sympathetically restored so that they actually resembled the way the cars appeared when new rather than the better-than-new confections favored in the United States.