I Am Touring Paris In My Christmas Present - A Citroen 2CV
Citroen 2CV on the Boulevard de la Bourdonnais
The tomb of Napoleon with real gold dome
Come along on our ride
Nothing says Paris quite like touring along the Seine River in a Citroen 2CV with the top down on a sunny day in January. For years I have coveted one of these cute little French cars.
After World War II - Europe was a mess. The roads were tattered. So car companies were building sturdy - cheap cars that could navigate without without roads. The Germans built the VW Beetle. The British built the Mini. The Italians built the Fiat 500. But the strangest one was the Citroen 2CV.
2CV stood for deux chaveau - two horses. The engine was a little 2 cylinder engine that drove the front wheels. Today we have a lot of front wheel drive cars - but back then they were rare. This provided excellent traction both on and off the road.
The Citroen 2CV was very light - weighing in at about half a ton. The engine had 16 HP -but it got excellent gasoline mileage over 50 MPG. It had longitudinal springs springs which made for a very bump free ride. Farmers would haul their eggs to the market with hardly a break.
They came in just one version - with a rolling back canvas top. The windows flipped open - the doors were too thin for rolling windows.
Today - the cars are collector items. They certainly draw attention rolling through the narrow streets and passage ways of the West Bank. We even went down along the banks of the Seine River.
No - my Christmas present was not a car to take home - simply a one hour tour of the city in a Citroen. And that is just about as good as it gets. Lulu rode in the back seat and took the video.
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