From horseless cart to va va voom: France's love affair with the Renault
On Christmas Eve 1898, residents of the Rue Lepic in Montmartre marvelled as a 21-year-old inventor chugged up the steep hill on a wheezing horseless carriage.
That exploit by Louis Renault, motoring pioneer and racing driver, is due to be celebrated with a recreation of the street in a lavish new museum the French automotive group is building on the bank of the Seine, 25 miles west of Paris.
The vast 'spectacular exhibition space' on the site of its historic factory at Flins, designed by the Polish-born French architect Jacob Celnikier, will be the first time the 127-year-old car maker has gathered its heritage of historic vehicles and artworks in one place.
Louis Renault in the driver's seat of a Voiturette Renault 1 in 1899
ALAMY
The Renault 4 came out of the factory at Flins in the 1960s, the 5 in the 1970s and four generations of Clio, the small car advertised by 'Nicole and Papa' in the 1990s and latterly by Thierry Henry espousing its 'va va voom'.
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