Classic Car Photography: The Citroen 2CV

No big news, I love photography and I’ve been writing a lot about it recently so let’s take a little break shall we?

And so another great passion of mine is a classic French car and of course photographing/documenting it.

This car is the antidote, the remedy against the increasing speed of things, against all modern things which we benefit from but also take over our lives.

I’m talking about the French icon that is the 2CV aka the Deuche, the Duck, Die Ente, la Deux Chevaux, the Tin Snail.

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Throughout my life the 2CV has somehow always been around. Ask any French person from outside of Paris and they’ll have either owned one or had a family member / friend who did.

I remember as a 5 year old kid. We lived in the tiniest French village and my parents would drive me and other village kids in their 2CV van (an extended version) across the French countryside to a nearby school. Each time we’d go over a bump all the kids would be thrown in the air and bounce in sync with the car laughing hysterically.

That was A LOT of fun.

At the age of 23 my mum and I drove from London to Scotland in a 2CV van. We’d see those huge hills coming and pray we’d make it to the top, which we did eventually… in raging first gear with a long queue of angry people behind us. But we didn’t care, it felt good to be slow and take our time.

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The following year when I was 24 I moved out of London for a couple of years to the south of France. My mum bought me a beautiful red 2CV and I drove it across France to eventually settle in Montpellier. The two years I was there were mostly spent in my 2CV, driving to the beach, driving to some canyon and wild river, driving everywhere. Not really fast but very happy and making lots of people smile on the way.

Then 14 years went by and nothing.

I’d moved back to London and kind of forgot all about this cute little pile of metal. Or so I thought…

That was until November 2015 when for god knows what reason I looked at 2CVs for sale.

What do you think happened? Obviously within a week I’d bought one.

How could I resist this beautiful refurbished 1964 model with French steering wheel?

Done deal, I got her delivered from Preston to Dorset where my family lives.

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Since then my wife and I have grabbed any opportunity to leave London and enjoy the British countryside aboard our beloved 2CV, roof down, leaving our mobile phones behind of course.

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Nico