Cité de l'Automobile

The entrance to the hotel parking lot was through a covered alleyway. We knew the hotel had off street parking but were not prepared for the gated entry with a keypad. As a fan of automobiles I was delighted to see a Ferrari in the parking lot. After all, our purpose for being in Mulhouse, France, was to see one of the most prestigious automobile collections in the world. The hotel was really nice although the desk clerk was rather snooty. Mulhouse was different from most French cities we had visited in that it was more Germanic and this was quite noticeable in the names of streets and businesses. Indeed it had been a part of Germany several times in its history.

We caught the bright yellow tram after purchasing a ticket at the ticket kiosk for our trip to the museum which is located in the industrial part of the city in a former textile manufacturing facility. The museum is of 19th century architecture and covers about 200,000 square feet or a little bigger than a Wal-Mart Super Store but on three levels and is well laid out with automobiles grouped in several categories. The automobile collection was started by Fritz Schlumpf, the textile magnate to whom the building belonged. However, due to the demise of French textiles the collection eventually became the property of the French government. Hence it is known as  Cité de l'Automobile, the French National Automobile Museum. Schlumpf was an avid fan of Bugatti automobiles and had an extensive collection. Here you can see Bugattis from the very earliest to the latest Veyron. Of the 500 cars in the collection, ninety-seven brands are represented, but one hundred twenty-three are Bugattis. Some of the other brands are Hispano-Suiza, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Maserati, Maybach, Mercedes, and Porshe of the 400 cars on display. There are 1one hundred twenty on reserve and twenty on loan to museums throughout the world. 

The displays are meticulous. There are cut-a-way displays of vintage Bugattis and displays of engines with explanatory videos. There are the early one cylinder engines as well as the later V-10 Peugeot and W-16 Veyron engines. In the display of the Bugatti Royale the wooden forms upon which the sheet metal was formed are on display. Formula 1 racers are displayed with a giant photograph of a raceway crowd in the background. Other racing cars such as Grand Prix and rally cars are also displayed. Many of the cars are grouped according to year of manufacture. The Bugatti Veyron, the world’s fastest production automobile, has a place of honor. Another interesting inter-active display allows you to sit in a Citroen sedan while it is rotated on its axis imitating a rollover crash. It was inoperative when we were there, but then I’ve done the rollover before in a Ford on the highway. Some history need not be repeated.

It is very interesting to observe the evolution of the automobile through the displays. Here you can see how the primitive three-wheel vehicle evolved into the modern sedan. The museum is very quiet and comfortable, more like an art gallery than a place of greasy mechanical things. (They are not greasy, everything is pristine.)There are some truly historic automobiles such as the Bugatti Royale, Mercedes-Benz SSK and Colin Chapman’s F-1 Lotus. Chapman’s design changed Formula One racing radically. Notably missing is the Ford GT-40, the car that beat Ferrari at La Mans and 1932 Alpha-Romero racer which dethroned Bugatti as a consistent winner. Young Enzo Ferrari was a driver for Alpha-Romero in the early days. Regrettably, I saw only one American brand and it was a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

The French National Automobile Museum was another one of those places I could have spent a couple of days or more. But we had to move on and find the place where my uncle had died in France during “the war to end all wars”.

_____________________________ Additional Information French Auto Museum Mulhouse, France Bugatti My video of the museum ___________________________