Finally got around to visiting the amazing display of Ralph Lauren's toys in Paris. This involved a massive amount of contrivance, some severe sacrifice on the part of my missus (I dread to think what the kids were like on a boat chugging up and down the Seine for two hours while I was swanning around the Musée des Arts Décoratifs), but was well worth it.
I went with a French architect friend who is no great classic car fan, but has a dread terror or boats so needed an "out" because his wife and brood were accompanying mine. While I was boring him to death to histories, stats and prices in my pidgin French, I realised that his insight into the design aspects of the collection were far more enlightening ( blowing away my perhaps naive assertions that the Atlantic really isn't that pretty compared to other Type 57s).
To kick off, let's describe the show. It's only 17 cars, but, even so, the space seems small. Thanks to that and the incredible access you have to these priceless machines – they sit on small plinths, but that is it – it almost makes you feel guilty to be so close to them, wary that a jacket button or camera could swing into one. Well not cameras because photography is forbidden (only slightly greatening the need to shell out a considerable sum for the accompanying book, though to balance things it should be said that, at €9, entry is cheap).
You enter the museum to see the Atlantic (earwigging the French visitors it is astonishing how few are aware that this is part of their own motoring heritage), and then go up some stairs to be confronted with a series of tastefully displayed greats from the ex-Trossi SSK to an LM at the far end of the room, via a multitude of sports racing greats and a single GP car, the Type 59 Bug.
