The Secrets of France’s Presidential Garage

A video has just been posted by Automoto that takes you into the Elysée to discover the French National Government’s presidential garage — filmed for the 1st time.

Ride in a presidential C6 and learn about the Citroëns of the presidents. See footage of the bullet-ridden DS that survived the assassination attempt of Charles De Gaulle. And meet former president of France, François Hollande.

In the garage is still one of the two SM Présidentielle convertible limousines commissioned by the French government. And listen to Denis Huile as he sits in the other SM Présidentielle that now resides in the Citroën – DS Conservatory, on the outskirts of Paris. (Oddly though there isn’t any reference to the massive DS Présidentielle behind him in the background that was built by Henri Chapron for De Gaulle but he rode in only once).

From the CX Prestige of Jacques Chirac to the XM that transported François Mitterrand and the DS7 Emmanuel Macron chose for his inauguration, there is great historical footage through a range of government commissioned cars from the mid-1960’s to present day. Plus, there are interviews with those who drive and service them.

Though the video is entirely French, you can get a rough real-time translation into English by clicking on the Closed Caption icon and then select in Settings Subtitles; “French (auto-generated) >>> English”.