CAR SPOTTING Renault Caravelle

a chance meeting with a hidden treasure

... did I ever tell you that I truly and deeply and madly love OLD cars, as in AUTOMOBILES? Well, I guess I didn't (and I don't even know why it never occurred to me... too much into fashion and consorts, I reckon), but I still do. My love with cars goes back a long way, as it were, since I think I knew most car brands and models when I was a small child - and my dear dear dear great-aunt, with who I spent lots of time (I actually preferred staying at her place by far to kindergarten, which I loathed), would always be eager to test my knowledge. When all of a sudden I was able to read, a year or so before starting school, what adults generally told me was that I learned the alphabet by reading and incessantly checking car brands (that's actually what I'm inclined to believe until today, even though there is a faint chance my great-aunt consciously taught me to read little by little and I forgot all about it). So, in a way, it was maybe cars that brougth me to study comparative literature later on. ANYHOW, there is that wonderful and non-descript garage in Vienna where they routinely repair and sell new Renault cars, but there is also that one Renault Caravelle model on display: the Caravelle was produced from 1958 through 1968, and it was conceived for the Amercian market, which makes it look so, well, un-French in a way. An adorable little car indeed, I would like to say (and it faintly reminds me of Columbo's Peugeot, too) ... juste quelques peu de mots en français, mais je me suis dit que je pourrais ENFIN partager avec vous, mes chers lecteurs, ma grande passion pour les voitures. D'accord, "grande passion", c'est peut-être un peu exagéré, mais ce n'est pas moins vrai que, depuis mon enfance, j'ai toujours eu un grand penchant pour les belles automobiles, et cet intérêt ne m'a pas encore complètement abandonné (même si, absurdement, et vu les circonstances dans lesquelles j'ai passé mon permis, je ne conduis pratiquement pas...). Quand bien même je préférerais de loin, dans la plupart des cas, les modèles anciens à ceux qui sont lancés aujourd'hui, appelez-moi donc un automobiliste empêché nostalgique, je ne puis vous contrarier. Quoi qu'il en soit, quel bel exemplaire de la Renault Caravelle est-ce que je n'ai pas découvert à Vienne, chez un voiturier point spécialisé dans la (re)vente de voitures anciennes. Un rêve d'automobile conçue pour le marché américain par la grande marque française, et produite tout au long des années 60. Pas mal, hein ? ... e, per finire, qualche parola sul mio amore per gli automobili, soptrattutto le macchine non completamente contemporanee (troppo "slick" per i miei gusti, più spesso che no), mi sono dunque detto che avrei potuto cominciare a parteggiare questa passione piuttosto teorica (siccome non guido, sfortunatamente, sebbene abbia la patente...) ed orientata verso il passato con voi, cari lettori. Eccovi dunque un esemplare del modello Caravelle prodotto da Renault per il mercato americano da 1958 e 1968, una bella macchina che ho visto in una carozzeria viennese per niente stravagante ...