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Link to PHOTOS Album
While riding around some fantastic twisty roads in the Verdon Gorge in France I saw a sign for the Citroen Museum. I had to stop. It turned out to be a pretty amazing place. There are over 100 Citroens there. All but one or two are post WWII cars, so there is not really a lot of variety to see as far as cars go, but the stories behind each one are pretty amazing.
I met the owner of the museum, who is also the owner of all the cars. He is also the mechanic and restorer. Each car comes complete with a story of how he found the car, and the story of the car itself. Each car is in running condition. All are low mileage. His goal is to have a complete collection of low mileage, unrestored, streetable cars.
There are a few unusual cars in the collection, and all are unique in some way. I put all the photos and description in the photo album, see link above, but here are a few that caught my attention.
I was lucky to find this place open, as the season has ended and they are only going to be open a few more days this year. Meeting the owner was a big plus, as he had tons of stories. I could have talked with him for hours. A crew from Jay Leno's garage had filmed there recently as well, although Jay Leno had not been there.
I also met a man from the US there. My license plate does attract attention. Europeans look at it and just wonder, as the only indication of where it is from is the N and a little over to the right an H. Americans pick it out pretty quickly and come to talk. This man was originally from Pennsylvania, but currently in one of the Carolinas, I forget which one. He was with his wife who was originally from France, if I heard correctly. It is good to occasionally hear an American accent, especially since in France, very few people speak any English at all.
Not many vehicles came with a Wankel, aka Rotary engine. There are two prototypes of Citroen's attempt here. This is the inside of an engine.
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A model of how a Wankel Engine works. 
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This is one of the prototypes. Nothing special to look at, but the story is what this museum is all about. 
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This car sat in a garage for 41 years, almost new. 
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It still had the ribbons from the wedding day when it was last used. 
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Currently has less than 9,000 Km 
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A room full of Citroens. There were 4 rooms this full. 
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This car was almost sent to the crusher as the registration documents were lost. France is weird about that kind of thing. The registration was probably in the owners wallet. The wallet was put in the man's suit when he was buried after his death. Fortunately they were able to get new documents, not an easy task in France. 
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Pre-WWII model, in as found condition. 
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This is the oldest known DS-19 known to exist. This was displayed in a similar way to the way it was presented at the Paris introduction. 
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Another room of Citroens. Many are the C2V model. The owner had driven a Citroen C2V model across the Soviet Union not long before the wall fell. He was a young man then, and had a great time. These were not cars that many Soviet citizens had ever seen. Nor had they seen many French people. 
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A nice simple air cooled engine in the front. 
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Oh, and another nice simple air cooled engine in the back. An interesting way to create a 4 wheel drive vehicle.
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The C2V cars are all over France as daily runners. I saw one on a rainy highway with it's skinny tires and weird suspension. It was keeping up with the 90 kph speed limit with ease, even in the twisty bits, altough it was listing rather precariously in my opinion. They are the Volkswagon Beetle of the French car culture. 
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Frame number 2. This is the first one that was sold, as Frame number 1 crash during testing. 
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And this was one of the last to leave the factory of these trucks. 
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Molded Colored Plastic body. 
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Oh yeah, another room of Citroens. 
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