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
By Jim Yu
Mar 4, 2015
Mercedes Lilienthal 
Kamil Kaluski
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?