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Car Models At Louvre
Words Marco Rallo / Photos Félicien Michaut
Five more minutes. After ten, mom was still screaming because by then dinner was getting cold. But after all, I’m sure the most of you had to manage a traffic jam created on the carpet in your bedroom, made indistinguishable due to the incredible number of cars parked on it. That was a serious thing, then the years have passed, we became adults and those model cars have grown like us, even if we certainly don’t complain when our nephew asks us to play with him. Am I right?
After all, the passion for cars began from that very precise moment of our childhood and despite the beard and some hints of white hair over our head, we have jealously kept our favorite models until now. Or, like Félicien, it happens going to work with a 1:43 scale model always ready in the pocket of his jacket, because you never know that the opportunity arises for a photograph and immortalize a moment capable of taking us back in time, but with the awareness of an adult who holds tightly to himself the light-heartedness of those good old days, where all that mattered was just the time for playing, thus taking possession of that miniature world that for us was the center of everything.
Félicien lives in Paris and is the creator of FrenchCarsToys, an original way of immortalizing France on wheels and therefore through Citroen, Peugeot and Renault models in urban and rural settings. Spontaneous shots, without any kind of editing and with the aim of recreating scenes of everyday life, joining his models together with a background perfectly integrated into the image that he envisions in his mind the moment before acting on the button of the camera. And so, choosing through more than 700 different cars and passing from the iconic 2 CV, Renault 4, Peugeot 205, to various sedans, vans and work vehicles, each of them is able to tell a small story full of character and desire to smile, an aspect that especially in the historical period in which we find ourselves at the moment should not be taken for granted.
In his photos you get a lot of color, a great desire to switch off and go back to your childhood, because in the depths of our hearts those moments spent sitting on the floor of the bedroom and surrounded by toys are among the best memories of our life. The FrenchCarsToys Facebook page has over 20,000 followers, proof of the strong interest in model cars, especially when offered through the style of Félicien and his games of perspective, reflections and guests of honor like none other than the Mona Lisa. Yes, the original one, since he works at the Louvre Museum in Paris. In this case, there is not just love for cars, for the territory, art or for what most would call collectible models or even simple toys. Félicien’s is a carefree approach that acts as a generational bridge and combines children and grown-up men dreams, where the desire for time to stop for a moment is immortalized in photographs that seem to shrink and transport you to that fabulous world 1:43 scale. Five more minutes, there is a van to park and take another photo. Everything else can wait.
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