A letter was written about the Citroën Conservatory for the signal closing

Whatever happened to the Paris airport Charles de Gaulle located Citroën plant in Aulnay-sous-Bois for the closure in the year 2021 – you will not recognize it again today. The area is active in a logistics and service platform where you can walk around and now a product – part of the own factory – has most likely remained. The war with the sanctuary of the Marke became a home to 280 historical Citroën. Now that fate is honored, and after the abriss no traces of history are left behind.

Xavier Crespin, the former Managing Director of the Aventure Peugeot Citroën DS, and Denis Huile, Heritage Manager of Citroën, have loaded one of our sacred Halls into their sacred Halls. This ostentatious and silent building is a lasting experience, an experience full of emotions. Once in a while, it is a very light, the icons of the companies once again on the market: in those 80 years the old Traction Avant, the “Ente” 2CV and of course the “Göttin” DS, which will appear in 2025 in the 70th anniversary year. Dazu Kleinwagen with Visa and AX, the CX and the grandiose SM with Maserati engine. If you choose from a selection of Leckerbissen: Models in limit version, export versions or complete for motorsport enthusiasts. The most recent Ausstellungsraum housed an entire library of plaster models of futuristic design cars from the 1960s – as further proof of the immense creditworthiness of the Marke with the Doppelwinkel. We will continue to work on the bank, on the workers who work there, as soon as the holidays are completed…

The Farewell Tour War is so bad, as it changes in the different eras, in the Citroën an important role in the European cultural game. If the cars the French in the first paid Urlaub, the Tractions were were the War of the Resistance appraised – and later as “Gangsterlimousine” berühmt – Citroën were the family cars of the French working class, DS, CX and SM classes for the avant-garde, then came the ingenious city cars of the 1980s and after the annual Limousines, which are opened in the global economy for the Chinese market.

As Xavier Crespin notes, the Conservatory is in a turbulent environment: “It was founded in 1982 by Pierre Peugeot. Damals went through the PSA-Gruppe, it was the Verstaatlichung. Erbe des Konzerns langfristig zu schützen, gründete Pierre Peugeot ‘l’Aventure Peugeot’. In 1988, the Peugeot 205 was owned by the Konzern wirtschaftlich and Peugeot owner of a museum in Sochaux. L’Aventure Citroën, the organization is proud, always had signals Sitz in Aulnay-Sous-Bois.” Unter Leitung von Crespin beschäftige l’Aventure 55 Mitarbeiter and 40 standard Volunteers and three historical Standorten: Sochaux, Aulnay and Poissy near Paris. Daneben was responsible for L’Aventure for eight kilometers of archives and a 2,000 square meter Ersatzteillager.

Once you have a static exhibition area, the adventure is one of active activities. Therefore the online sale of replacement parts with 18,000 items for Peugeot and Citroën as well as for Simca and Panhard vehicles. Crespin, from this Digital Transformation Leitete, explains: “These components come from three channels: best, known components, which we have in our own factory or in our own vehicle, charged by our customers or private persons, who use 3D, plastic products or metallurgy techniques are new.” 60 Prozent der Werkstätten für die Wartung und Restaurierung von Fahrzeugen, die zijn voor de Erhalt a solchen Sammlung unerlässlich sind, wurden für external Kunden en 40 Prozent für die Wartung der eigenen Fahrzeuge des Conservatoriums genutzt.

Was unserem Besuch in Aulnay besonders auffiel, war der ausgezeichnete Zustand der Fahrzeuge. “There would be no compromise, use original parts and consider historically correct material,” said Xavier. Of course, as one of the Konzeptfahrzeuge full of veralteten IT-Geräten and his small Gebrauchsanweisung, an unheard of Schwierigkeiten was brought with it. “It’s a bit more elegant, in the Cockpit there are Konzeptfahrzeugs that correspond to a Vorkriegsfahrzeug wieder in Gang zu setzen!”, says Xavier. With 620 Citroën in the Sammlung – of the 280 in Aulnay there were – and another 580 Peugeot, the Verwaltung is a solitary Erbes zweifellos eine Herausforderung.

Manche Autos has had an interesting development, which has made the 6, the Witwe a Citroën-Liebhabers-action. Nothing has happened to the car and then he will continue to enjoy for a long time. There is no talk of a brand new C15-deck with the exclusive 2CV-Hermès with an excellent inner status from fabric and leather. No original seller: the British Werk Slough and the right-hand DS. If you park the DS ‘de la paye’, you can appeal to the Lohnschecks of the Arbeiter-beherbergte.

Aber Citroën was not yet part of the French Alltags, the Marke ist auf Sinnbild für exotic Abenteuer: So we are aware of the Ausstellung von Autos, die Welt traveled – of the ZX for the Rallye Paris-Dakar bis zu de 2CV für Raids durch Afrika and Asia. Then you see: the limited Citroën 2CV 007, as a tribute to the film car for the James Bond Steifen “For your eyes only” 1981 in a 1000er edition (500 for the Kontinent, 500 for the British Insel) is available.

If you look at the Aventure Peugeot Citroën DS Ambitions, you have to leave the stand, but this is getting bigger and bigger. The building in the Ile de France region, the other countries that use a rich car company (once more) den Rücken kehrt. Who now sees the automatic debit of this car? “It is a plant that the enormous capacity of the conservatories a knitting to knit the machine”, said Loïc de la Roche, Managing Director of the Aventure, in the hands of the hand of the Schicksal of the Sammlung. The opening of the new museums is frühestens in three or four years of erwarten, zum Standort can not be there even once. In the Zwischenzeit all cars are one of the things we have not done.

Dieser letzte Besuch in Aulnay war üllt von Ernsthaftigkeit, Nostalgie und Respekt. Dieser still and right karge ort war ein zigartiges Zeugnis or industryllen Geschichte der Marke. If you are now hoffen, this one-sided car assembly is bare and a new stand that will work with your life.

Photos: Rémi Dargen for Classic Driver