Paris like any major city is full of the little gems and the best one for me is the Citroen garage on the Champs-Elysées considered by many to have some of the most exciting shops in the world.  Along side the Channel shop and other designer good stores for the girls the boys will be pleased to find a few prestige car showrooms showing the latest models and hinting at forthcoming attractions.  But for those who like architecture, design and history all wrapped around cars I can think of nothing better to look at in Paris than this showroom.

History is taken care of at the top of the building with the Traction Avant and the 2CV working down the floors and history past the current design icon and into the future in the basement.

What one has to wonder at is how they get the new ones in when they want to change round the display.
The Citroeon car company was founded in 1919 by Andre Citroen who converted a Quai de Javel munitions factory after the first world war in Paris.  Andre Citreon was inspired by the industrial model of Henry Ford of the US and he had the desire to mass produce cars in order to bring down the prices to bring car ownership to the masses.

Like Ford his first car was named after the letters of the alphabet starting with A. The A was Citroën's first production car and came into production in June. It was the first mass-produced car to be built in Europe and also the first low-cost car to be sold fully equipped with electric starter and lighting, bonnet, spare wheel and tyre, etc. The launch price of FF 7,950 was exceptionally low by the standards of the time.  The car was propelled by a 1,327 cc 4 cylinder engine developing 18bhp.
The Traction Avant, the first mass production car with front wheel drive, was launched in 1934 just as the company was taken over by Michelin following financial difficulties caused by the worldwide depression. 

The launch of the iconic 2CV was prevented by the outbreak of the second world war.  Like the VW Beetle the French peoples car the 2CV helped rebuild the fortunes of the Company and the Country after the war.  However, it was not launched until 1948 with a 375 cc flat air cooled twin cylinder engine developing 9bhp and, for the first time, a 4 speed gearbox as standard.  Production ran until 1990.

Few car companies can equal the engineering genius of Citroen and fans will always remember the third iconic car that they made the DS.  Launched at the Paris motor show in 1955 the car was revolutionary with aerodynamic silhouette and innovative technical features such as the hydropneumatic suspension with automatic height adjustment.  Indeed all the major systems were power driven including brakes with two independent braking circuits and an automatic proportioning device to adjust brake power to vehicle load.  A world first on a production car, the brakes are equipped with discs at the front.

Examples of all three car can be seen at the showroom along with the modern examples of the make and, in the basement, a mock-up of a future car.  Something not to be missed by the enthusiast visiting Paris and an ideal escape from the shops on the most famous shopping street in the world.