CITE DE L'AUTOMOBILE----THE FRENCH NATIONAL AUTO MUSEUM

Today is our last day in Europe before we fly home tomorrow.  We visited the French National Car Museum in Mulhouse, France.  This place has 700 European Cars and an unbelievable 120 Bugattis. There huge collection of Grand Prix cars is fantastic as well as the collection of cars from The 24 Hours of Le Mans.  When we left the museum Nonette said "Lets go to Colmar." so we hoped on the Train for the trip north in the Alsace of France to the old city of Colmar.  We had supper and Nonnie did some shopping before we got back on a southbound train back to St. Louis, France that we fly out of tomorrow.  Enjoy the pictures from the Museum and a few of Colmar.  We will be back in the U.S. tomorrow evening.

This car is 22 feet long.  The front fender, running board, and rear fender are one piece.

This is the wood under the body.

This is  the buck on which the one piece fenders and running board were formed on

This is the craftsman making the part.

The car sculptures at the entrance are full size (about MG size) hanging from cables

Millions and millions of dollars worth of Bugattis in this museum

Car on right won the 1934 Grand Prix at Monaco

Grand Prix cars from the 30's through 50's

Mercedes

1955 Mercedes that participated in 1955 Mille Miglia

A beautiful Bugatti rag top

Look at the lines of this Bugatti

Mercedes roadster from the 20's

On left is a Minerva by a Mercedes from the 20's

1919 Renault

1920 Rolls Royce Chassis

Oldest car in the place is this 1878 Jacquot

Several million dollars worth of 38 Mercedes 540K

My favorite Bugatti from the 30's

One of 7 Bugatti Royales about 25 feet long

Isotta Fraschini

Delahaye

What a great Bugatti Coupe

All the Grand Prix or Formula 1 cars

front clip of a restoration

Chassis of restoration

Body of restoration

Bugatti engine (note water pump on left front

12.7 Liter Engine

Nonnie in Colmar

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CHAMONIX: A WALK DOWN THE MAIN DRAG

Today we took a day off from our physical activities.  Chamonix is a really upscale ski town; lots of real nice shops and swanky hotels, none of which we are staying in.  We are staying in an Air bnb where we are using disposable sheets that we had to buy and we had to provide our own towel for showering. We walked around Chamonix seeing the sights and shopping.  In Chamonix the mountains are up close and personal all the time.  It's hard to take a picture without the mountains in the background.  The hang gliders are everywhere; at any time there are around 30 hang gliders in the air above town.  I wish I were young; I might give hang gliding a try.  The problem would be if Lubbock Tent and Awning could produce a piece of fabric large enough to glide, a neat but not gaudy, 280 pounds of wasted human flesh.  Tomorrow we leave Chamonix for Basel Switzerland.  We are going to take the train to Mulhouse, France to see Cite de l'Automobile.  The French National Automobile Museum that has the largest collection (about 100) of Bugattis anywhere with  hundreds of other fantastic cars from all over the world.  The day after the museum, we fly back to Birmingham and drive home in a few days. 

Lots of hang gliders

We had lunch in our first Japanese Restaurant.  All the Japanese tourist were eating there and we thought we'd give it a try.  It was very good.  They only gave us chopsticks, so that made it a little harder.  I have decided to go on a Japanese diet.  Just using chopsticks makes it so hard to shovel it in that a guy would surely lose some weight.

Church and hang gliders

The Casino

More hang gliders