A Grand DS Video with Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud

Kevin McCloud, best known for the British TV series Grand Designs, is swapping ambitious building projects for open roads in a new Channel 4 series that combines classic cars with journeys through the countries where they were made.

In Kevin McCloud’s Classic Car Road Trips, he gets behind the wheel of iconic vehicles, meeting new people and discovering each destination’s culture, cuisine and craftsmanship along the way. In each episode, Kevin is handed the keys to a classic car—a feat of timeless engineering and aesthetic excellence—and explores a different region with a direct connection to the model.

In the first of six episodes, Kevin explores the French Riviera in a classic 1960s Citroën DS 21 Cabriolet, bringing the same inimitable style of storytelling he’s known for in Grand Designs.

The series looks superb, as does Kevin’s engaging and reverent appreciation of the iconic DS. At one point, he remarks,

^{“It really feels as if you’re driving a piece of sculpture around.”}

After recounting the history of the DS, Kevin’s journey takes him from Cannes to Monaco along a winding route. Stops along the way include an internationally renowned design school near Nice, a family-run restaurant in the artistic medieval hilltop village of Biot, and a new twist on the game of Boules in another medieval hilltop village, Haut-de-Cagnes. It wouldn’t be a road trip with Kevin if he didn’t take us to a home of architectural significance before arriving in Monaco, where he swaps the DS for a very different classic Citroën and makes what may be the slowest lap ever of the Monaco Grand Prix circuit.

This is truly one of the best profiles of a DS Cabriolet you’re likely to see. The 47-minute programme is available on YouTube: