MUSÉE AUTOMOBILE REIMS-CHAMPAGNE

This vast museum gathers more than 230 vehicles dating from 1908 to 1985, mainly cars and motorcycles, which can be admired while walking in several alleys each dedicated to a different era and whose walls and posts are decorated with numerous old enamelled advertising plates. In the entrance, you will discover an elegant torpedo built in 1908 in the factory of the Société de Construction Automobile de Reims (SCAR), which was located a few kilometers from the museum, in Witry-lès-Reims. Other models built during the first twenty years of the twentieth century evoke the dynamism of the automobile industry of that time. Their brands are sometimes forgotten or poorly known: the Zebra, Benjamin, Chenard and Walker, Sima Violet, Cime... From the 1930s, there are cars with a sophisticated design reminiscent of the Art-Deco style. For example, there is a 1936 Panhard Dynamic with headlight grilles, cast aluminum bumpers and hood flames. The cars of the 1950s have a more fluid body style, as evidenced by the "pontoon" shape of the Delahaye 235. Also in this aisle is the armored Delahaye 180 sedan of Jacques Duclos, who was one of the leaders of the French Communist Party, as well as the Traction Citroën, the 2 Chevaux of the same brand, the Renault 4 Chevaux and the Peugeot 203. Amusing: pedal cars, which copy the look of the cars on display, are displayed alongside them.