Citroën Conservatoire - filming before it closes. Full walkaround - 29 minutes of French car heaven! 

Having worked with Citroën for 20 years around the turn of the millennium, I have known a lot of these cars and the Conservatoire and its staff back in the day. I tried to support them by dragging quite a number of those cars to Germany to show them at TechnoClassica, the classic car show, between 1998 and 2010, and have heard and retold many of the stories that you hint at in your commentary. It was a time when there was a real buzz around the brand, before the financial crisis of 2008 made a big dent in the sales curve and let to a lot of reorganisation (to which I finally fell victim, but that’s nothing to cry about, looking at what the corporation became later). I was shocked to hear they close it down, but at least officially, it’s not forever, and has more to do with the real estate situation of the ex-Aulnay factory site. Yet having seen the (understandably to a point) ruthless decision making of Stellantis, I can only imagine one good solution, and that’s seeing the collection go to somewhere in France’s less expensive provincial areas. It’s not completely historically correct, since the Citroën brand has always evolved in Paris, but Paris was too expensive even when they were earning good money before the crisis. A particular merit of the Conservatoire is not glossing over the tales of those catastrophic failures that preceded the GS and the CX in the 1960s. Pierre Bercot has a lot to answer for, but whether it’s his fault, is another matter, see the end of my next paragraph. Thank you Ian for this walkthrough, it brought back lots and lots of mostly very good memories, even if the later development gives me a slightly sour aftertaste. I have always been a fan of the brand and have lived the big pressure that the glorious heritage put on those whose day job it was to make and sell new Citroëns to people who always expected the world of every new model, but wanted to buy them at bargain prices. This in itself is probably the essence of the brand, which had its roots in cheap mass production and got its “avant-garde” reputation mostly because Citroën’s long time owners Michelin wanted to keep selling tyres to the competitors of its very own car brand, and did so by deliberately making cars that wouldn’t appeal to the same customers. I believe André Citroën himself only wanted to make cars that could stay in production for longer and thus save money in the long run, but he lost his company at the first attempt, the Traction Avant. Michelin took full advantage of the “mad genius” brand image that resulted from his gamble, both by taking control of the company, and by keeping it out of the way of full on competition with people they sold tyres to.

We don't get Citroen here in the U.S. anymore. This company really looks like they have a lot of fun designing their cars.

Thank you for allowing us to take this wonderful tour, through the much storied Citroen history with you. It is truly wonderful to see them all in one place, all of the different quirky and innovative designs. Thank you again for sharing and keeping the spirit of all of these old cars alive.

This is a great video for posterity. Cheers Ian.

I love Citroens, the 2cv when i was a schoolboy was bought by social workers and at my age would love one for slower pace of life.

Incredible video full of breath taking innovations.

What a collection Old Citroens are just lovely Also, based on the FAF project with Mehari-2CV mechanicals was the famous greek car, the NAMCO Pony

absolutely bloody amazing. thank you very much, ian. i hope wen all hat is packed up, nothing goes missing and it all survives and gets packed up securely. this needs to last till the end of time.....seriously. i cannot believe it has to close and nowhere for it to go. GEES

You really hit the right note with this one. Very difficult to celebrate and feel sorrow at the same time. But you did. Would be a travesty if it was to be split. Let’s hope they’ll get a new centre. Brilliant stuff. Sir. PS Poppy Kate’s… good call. Went today 👍👍

Excellent but sad. A world concentration of the essence of ‘because French’. I hope it does return one day.

I have always loved citroens styling

Amazing. Thank you for this amazing tour.👏👏💯💯👍👍 The GT.C1 i remember it from an actual paper car magazine. 😍 2CV Cross is Great.

Quite an enjoyable tour through history! Thanks Ian. Great video!

So gutted this place is closing. Whilst I'm in France next week, I will be nowhere near this! Wish I'd known about it before. Thanks for bringing it alive though! ☺️

Citroen always Citroen

Renault and Peugeot Museums next

Thank you! 💪🙂👍

I heard a story that when the DS Citroens where used in rallies they disconnected the linkage that turned the headlights with the steering because the lights faced the wrong way when they cornered on opposite lock .

Good effort to cram so much into 29mins. Encóre!

Great video Ian, much appreciated. I've been there twice, last time must have been in 2011 or 2012. Too bad it's closing down. Given the current Stellantis-strategy of maximizing profit and the positioning of Citroën in the Stellantis line-up, I somehow don't have high hopes for a museum with the same size of the Conservatiore. And if they are going to build it, it'll take years before we can see any of these cars again. Fingers crossed. Small addition to your story about Japanese-produced Citroëns: the C4 Aircross, a rebadged Mitsubishi ASX, with a Citroën-front and -back. is also one of them. So that makes 3 Citrobishi's in total.

Hi Ian. The Citroën Ami 6 Saloon were produced over 1.8 millions, the Estate only app. 500,000.

Great video, ive never seen your yt channel before, but sure youre know a lot about citroen 😊😊 im a bmw guy myself, have had about 80 cars in total - all of them bmws, but old citroens from 50s upto 80 early 90s have always impressed me and have far ahead of many other manufactures they where at that time 😊 why is that location closing actually?

The C60 prototype would have looked pretty decent had it received an Ami 8 style fastback or even a proper hatchback.

Such a crying shame that this collection is being closed down. It may never reappear in its full glory.

Concept cars are an odd thing, it seems that companies are forever holding-back designers' visions of the future and "dumbing down" the production versions. I suppose it's why we have mad independent sports car companies so we get to see at least a bit of bonkers now and then.

Peugeot, who overtook Citroen at that time, decided that Project L was not a good idea. The project car had 2 liter air cooled boxer engine, same as the G but bigger, and inboard brakes and same suspension geometry as D and G models. No frame on this like the cx got.

my Apologies, I’m interested in the Topic but you are very fast while sweeping over the cars and maybe when you were revisit the museum, you could stay just double as long on the cost to maybe give the view the chance to see more detail without having to pause every 20 seconds. Thank you for the video, I’m interested in the new version, if you ever come across that museum.

Slough is in England! Are you suggesting that Slough is the uk? Or is England the uk?

Soon our rulers, who read "1984" as an instruction manual, will memory hole the Citroën brand.

Xantia?

6:28 I thought it was a squashed Renault 20! Someone copied someone😮

It’s getting hard to remember a time when innovation and difference was something manufactures aspired to. Now it’s all just homogeneous blandness. It seems current car buyers all want to be the same so who’s to blame?

Energitism? Is that a real word?

You went way too fast in this video. You could do 10 seperate video's on this visit...

Makes me laugh that Trevor Fiore changed his surname to sound more exotic and presumably Italian but decided that sticking with the Trevor was just fine.

This reminds me of Volvo's museum that also closed forever. 2 former creative brands, now dead.

So glad you got there before it closed Ian. Mind blowing. Surely they will not break up this collection. An important part of France’s history.

What a wonderful video Ian. I knew Citroen were very experimental but seeing all those prototype was amazing. It's sad times that it's closing its doors. Many thanks for sharing. At least for those of us who cannot be there you have kindly recorded it.

You should visit the Peugeot museum in Sochaux and also the Bugatti museum in Mulhouse. Both in the Elzas region which is lovely for a holiday as well.

A sad but very interesting walkabout. Let's hope this collection gets to live again.

I visited Paris for the first time last year, with a visit to the Conservatoire pretty much top of my to-do list. I was heartbroken to find out that they were only accepting pre-booked tour groups of a minimum size, and am now even more heartbroken to know I'll never get the chance to see the colleciton at all. Terrible shame and I desperately hope the collection survives.

Awesome video. How times have changed. The design input on these cars were so unique. Now we everything look so similar and bland

What an amazing museum! It's remarkable how car manufactures are starting to not care about their own legacy!! :(

What a collection! Sad to hear it is closing; I hope the cars find good homes...I definitely saw a few I'd like! Cheers from Canada...

I've got a tear 😢 in my eye. Hubnut very melancholic at the end of the video. I sincerely hope that the collection can stay together in a new location

Thank you so much - I am in Citröen heaven ! I do hope that these cars all remain together and resurface in another museum one day. Great and hugely worthwhile video. Well done Ian !

These are sad times for citroen enthusiasts. Your voice said it all....

FAF equals "Facile à Fabriquer" (easy to build)

0% boredom. So many interesting cars! 99 minutes would still be heaven. Hope this collection will be shared somewhere else.

Pah, terrible! They don’t have an XM estate 😂 Great whistle stop tour, quick but surprisingly thorough! It is a shame it’s closing (even having only just learnt it exists…). I hope they find a new home that reopens!

Absolutely fantastic video ian ❤👍what a beautiful collection I've never seen so many beautiful cars in one place brilliant

Thanks for sharing this Ian, much appreciated 😊👍

A lot to take in there, and you're really showing your Citroen knowledge. I'm pretty sure that shade of green was only used on Slough built cars.

The problem is, that collection is absolutely massive! I think they'd need a couple of decent sized aircraft hangars to house it! Wonder what they will do with all the vehicles in the meantime! Hope it does re-emerge at some point though.

I never realised that Citroens had used A / B / C / D prefixes for their models all the way back a hundred years or more. Of course there was also X / Z later - I'd love to see video about their naming scheme(s).

Hopefully the collection will be relocated to somewhere new, it's sad when such things come to an end when there's so much history to e seen, heck, I'm sure Stellantis makes enough profit that they could build a nice shiny new museum to house all the cars they've got there, but they probably won't, big umbrella corporations and all...

Talk about kid in a sweet shop! Fantastic film - and plenty of wiper mentions which I always enjoy!

The C5 Convertible would have been a really nice glide.

Such a marvellous collection! Only thing I can complain about is the way they are displayed. I wish Citroën gave this treasure trove of cars a better home, in style of, say The World of Volvo, the Porsche museum or the Alfa Romeo Museum to name but a few. Just parking the side by side in a warehouse is a bit sad looking. Still - I NEED to go to this place. Thanks for a great video!

Where one car museum opens, another unfortunately closes. Hopefully this collection will resurface in a beautiful location.

Thanks Hubnut for the great film👍 Let's hope we see these fabulous Citroëns again soon🙌

A fantastic video of so many amazing Citroen's, thanks for taking the time to visit and film.

You've got to love citroen for not just putting out blocks with wheels on, they like to experiment.

I've owned a lot of the car models in that museum, some multiple times. It always seems weird seeing cars I used to own in museums. 57 and 60 2 CV, 84 GS estate ( Cottage) 69 Mahari, HY van, 3 traction 11s ( came with a house), early and late DS including a long door Chapron, ax, 84 and 88 BX, BX sport, , 88 CX estate, Visa, c15, C25 , And finally an SM. And I am a vw nut, not a Citroen one. Surprised not to see a Slough built Bijou though, I once found part of one in a scrap yard in the mid 80s , well, my friend did, he was a 2cv nut, he was almost crying. We spent the day looking in vain for the rest, west Drayton or Heston way I think, so maybe left over parts from the Slough factory.

This makes me wonder what happened to the GT by Citroen prototype. I think it was from 2005 from the top of my head 🤔

Amazing little tour, the Projet L is intriguing, it resembles a Peugeot to my eyes

Sadly it will take some years before we can see this (and the other -+300 cars) collection again!

What do you expect from a holding called Stellantis? Does Black Rock sound better to you? Capitalism rules. Forget about fantastic cars. Forever.

Thanks Ian. Too many favourites to mention. BX 4TC though, ooof

Thanks for the interesting tour Ian. Citroen have designed the most stunning cars. Citroen are more adventurous for off piste than certain German manufacturers who play it safe.

Realy a shame that they are closing! What an amazing collection ! It appears to be a trend of closing museums! Fiat museum closed, Volvo museum closed! Now Citroën! But thanks for taking us Ian to this wonderful collection! 👍🏻👍🏻🆙

Wonderful vids, sir. Fair play, Citroen have made some of the most beautiful cars ever made. Shame to hear of the closure of the Conservatoire ;-(

What a place! Hope they find a home for all those unique models.

Too many museums closing forever. Citroen need to go back to their crazy ways. They keep showing hints of quirkiness. I think they have been to safe recently. I do like their Oli prototype from a few years back. In the late 70s a neighbour of mine would take Visa's on amatuer rallies. He tried many other cars over the years, inlcuding the SX when it came out. But kept going back to a Visa.

What happens to this brand, with so many interesting vehicles in his history and now only makes 💩💩💩

I was looking forward to a more detailed tour of this museum given your love for this marque. Citroen was truly an innovative company even in more recent times, and again I hope another facility will be opened to house these cars.

Man they really have it all. Didn't think half these cars existed anymore let alone the fact you are (were) able to see them. What a terrible shame it's closing

Great collection. The Japanese/French Citroën/Peugeot link has been quite a common one in recent years as they have dealt with both Toyota and Mitsubishi to build cars. Last one's i think will be the C1/107's as they are soon to be dropped from the Citroën range. Sad times as I like small thrashy 3 cylinder cars.

Amazing! The saloon on the cover of this video the Projet L, seems a mix of Citroen and Peugeot, is a CX / 504 but seems also one of the prototype of Renault 20 / 30 : in this prototype there are all the french car makers...

what a collection, sad it will not reappear

You're doing a real public service with these videos, my friend 👍

Una hermosa colección! Gracias por mostrar!

another great video has always Ian and Carly miss/mrs hubnut and hublets and hubmutt 👍

Too many cars, so little time. Attempting to present decades Of Car History, never stopping enough time on a single car.

I do agree: this is French car heaven. Thanks for the pictures, Ian. See you soon »»» Martin 🚗⚡️🔥💨🇫🇷

Great content again

Gutted I couldn't go down there with you, but luckily I've been before. The crazy thing is there are many more cars in the collection, stored out the back. They get rotated every now and then. I went in 2016 and there are cars missing which I saw (including, I think, the grey Charleston you mention) and there are cars there which I never saw, either.

I love the blue Panhard looking car

Brilliant place that I've always wanted to visit, full of "Real Citroen's" let's pray it's preserved somewhere else 🙏🏻

I miss 1 car. The 9/12 seater estate in the DS class.

A fascinating video Ian, thanks. I run a 2009 C1 which I bought new.

Great video Ian glad you enjoyed your visit

Lovely video. I'm in Paris next week so I may even see if I can get in on one of the last few days. Slightly surprised that there weren't more xantias on show, probably my favourite of the three citroens that I have owned.

Also love the long car collection videos, your knowledge shines through!

Thanks for doing this for those of us who will never get to see this collection in person. You excel at this type of video; watching you doing your own fixing, not so much.

Wonderful!!! Thanks for the video. Love these old Citroën. I miss my 2cv so much.

Thanks for taking us on this wonderful tour. Such beautiful cars.

Great to see this, sad that it is closing

Oh happy day!! What a perfect video.

thanks Ian, so many gems. and thanks for tidying my head on those early Peugeot era Citroens, the Axel and original Ami. really really interesting stuff.