Musee D'Art & Industrie, Châtellerault
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| The Musee is part of a complex of industrial buildings that are far more pleasing on the eye than the corrugated steel sheds we get nowadays. |
Earlier this year, my road trip in France through the Vienne region coincided with a public history day with free entrance to museums and my hosts recommended this museum in Châtellerault - not to be confused with Chateauroux not far away.
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| I couldn't decide if this was a wooden frame or metal painted to look like wood |
Châtellerault was more of a centre of armament production but you can have too much of swords and guns. Le Grand Atelier includes a history of the famous nineteenth century Black Cat shadow theatre and the Auto, Velo, Moto collection of cars, bikes and motorcycles.
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| Godier Genoud monocoque framed Kawasaki |
I appreciated the building. It’s elegantly plain and outside are two massive chimneys that shout power although they actually pumped smoke into the atmosphere. All is clean and quiet now – one advantage, I suppose of a post-industrial society. The site is on the banks of the river Vienne, which provided a means of transport for the products of Les Manu – literally, those who made things. This museum is an homage to the skilled artisans who made things.
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| A weird and wonderful display of scooters depicted the search for transport for the ordinary person, rather than the enthusiast, a search that continues to this day. In the foreground is a 125cc Pagnon, a prototype from 1957. More info here |
We have to thank the late Count Bernard de Lassée for the vehicle
collection and it struck me as a very personal choice of vintage things. I
spent a long afternoon wallowing in obscure French marques, some of
which I was only vaguely aware. Even the pedal powered stuff was interesting
not all of it made of metal.
It seems it took some time for early manufacturers to work
out where best to put the engine.
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| I liked the glass bottles of oil for this rear-engined Simca on the servicing ramp |
There was a a re-created garage with vintage equipment and a good display of scooters. Scooter is the English word, which has superseded the French term of trottinette, a term I think should be reprised. The collection was not just limited to French machinery and I especially liked the inclusion of prototypes and show cars from yesteryear.
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| The curators have laid out the museum in roughly chronological order to show contemporary developments beside each other so a bicycle with a pressed-steel frame stands next to a Peugeot 202 of 1938 |
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| I need to know more about the overhead camshaft Rhony 'X 350. |
It seems the British marketed their wares aggressively and had Commonwealth markets to supply. French manufacturers also didn’t have the volumes of production the British enjoyed but, in the end, the inability to offer effective transport cheaply in the face of increased car ownership was what really killed them. In essence, what happened to French manufacturers was what occurred in the UK, only sooner.
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| Although this German 99cc Riedel is a bit too lightweight for me, its design really appealed, with one-sided forks and a sprung frame. It would look better without the rear carrier though. |
On the other hand, French car manufacturing avoided what happened in Britain. Was this a lesson learned from the indigenous motorcycle market?
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| I particularly liked the design studies by Heuliex and Citroen |
It’s a matter of national pride, I think. The market in France was once described to me as Renault for the socialist, Peugeot for the bourgeois and Citroen for the iconoclast. There were other manufacturers, of course, but “les grand routiers” like Delage and Delahaye were hit by a horsepower tax and smaller companies couldn’t match the domestic big three (more like a big two nowadays and globalised beyond France).
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