First created in 1929 by Gaspard Cognet the Douk-Douk knife is still made by M.C. Cognet in France using the same, time tested methods. Each blade is handmade from high-carbon steel and both handle and blade features a beautiful series of engravings that are a story unto themselves.
Marcel Renault was the co-founder of the automaker that bears his name to this day, he used to build and race his own cars before a tragic accident in the 1903 Paris-Madrid Race.
Last year the wonderfully talented Dimitri Coste launched an all out assault on Pikes Peak in the saddle of his beautiful Triumph Special…
They say good things come in threes, so with that in mind, here’s our third BMW motorcycle this week. Dubbed the ‘Lucky 13’ this BMW R100/7 is the latest build out of the garages of Blitz Motorcycles, a France based custom motorcycle garage with a penchant for cafe racers, scramblers and very unusual paint jobs.
The Caudron C450 was an exceedingly advanced racing aircraft built in France in 1934, the plane was a one-off design created to be raced in the Coupe Deutsch de la Meurthe race of the same year. Powered by a 300hp Renault engine and capable of speeds in excess of 310mph the C450 won the race by a safe margin, piloted around the course by Maurice Arnoux.
It isn’t often that you can accuse the French of out-Americaning the Americans. I think this is perhaps one such rare occasion. Meet the Wakan Motorcycle.
Françoise Hardy was an iconic figure during the ’60s and ’70s, her music influenced millions including the likes of Bob Dylan and her effortless style heavily affected the fashion industry of the era. In some respects she was France’s answer to Audrey Hepburn, although arguably Hardy’s influence stretched further.
Though not inline with our usual features we talked about this film a great deal and decided that anyone who appreciates the intricate engineering and sense of history that goes into vintage motorcycles and automobiles will be touched by this wonderful short film by Tom Wrigglesworth and Mathieu Cuvelier.
I decided to save a special car for Christmas Day, I thought about it long and hard and settled on this, the 1933 Bugatti 59 Grand Prix.
1939 Delahaye Type 165 is viewed by many as the most beautiful French car of the 1930’s, only 2 of them were ever made with this one having been fatefully chosen by the French government to represent France at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
Board Track Tricycle Racing is something we were unaware of until very recently, it appears to be a French photograph and the background doesn’t give a whole lot away. If you know more about this than we do, which isn’t hard at this point…
Englishman Raymond Mays was an avid racer and through a deal with a Bugatti importer he managed to finagle himself a Type 13 to go racing in….
