Ready for something weird? Really weird? French weird?
The Renault dealership in Paris is odd. It’s even odder than the Citroen dealership. From the outside, L’Atelier (studio/workshop) Renault looks modern, but relatively benign. But what is this “The Renault Espace Sensations Experience”? Let’s go inside.
Like the Mercedes dealership, an F1 car greets visitors. Here, it’s a Renault powered 2012 Red Bull Racing RB8.
I had to experience the Espace exhibit. And this is what I experienced.
To sum up, the experience was dark, confusing, and pointless. It did not make me covet an Espace. As you exit the exhibit, there is a cutaway Espace minivan.
I saw a few one-seater Twizys in town and got to sit in one at the showroom.
The dealership had a few other gimmicks, including this children’s play area…
…and this bar restaurant upstairs. The menu looked intriguing, but I wasn’t hungry and I still had the Citroen dealership to visit. (And yes, those are swings for customers to sit in.)
The Citroen dealership is more like a museum than any of the other dealerships along the Champs-Elysees. The building is narrow and tall. At each level is a singular car. The cars on display when I visited were all contemporary and a bit boring. To be fair, I think Citroen had all the cool cars at the Retromobile exhibit.
Stay tuned as I show you the greatest collection of Citroens in the world, at the Conservatoire!
Images source: Copyright 2015 Hooniverse/Jim Yu
Flagship Dealerships of the Champs-Elysees: Renault, Citroen
-
The Citroën building is pretty neat. Did they feature any of their new DS brand there, or have they fully separated it?
They seem to have global ambitions with DS–about a month ago the brand CEO said their plan is to have a dealership presence in 30 North American cities. The tone was very matter-of-fact, the lack of pomp surrounding that statement was conspicuous.
I’m looking forward to their arrival.-
DS has been completely separated from Citroën.
To see DS’s you have to go to the DS World.
-
-
That’s cool! The Citroën building looks like a fantastyland factory. Is that a slide in the middle?
-
I popped in for a little bit when I was in Paris for the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year.
I didn’t make it to Citroen, because I was on the wrong side of the street, and we had dinner reservations to make. -
I call this experience: death by airbags
http://i0.wp.com/hooniverse.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/IMG_7967.jpg?resize=720%2C540-
Hmm how does the new image linking work without the extra garbage?
-
Leave a Reply