A Future Four in France
by Peter Gumbrell, 26 January 2011, updated 12 February 2011
Here at my abode in Lyon, France, my new flatmate handed me a recent copy of a local freebie daily paper, '20 Minutes', to peruse. I was instantly struck by an image on its front cover which contained something familiar, so I turned to the full article on page 3 to find out more.
Look closely and you may spot the item in question (see below for a zoom into the photo). Here are presented some plans for redeveloping a trunk road in the city, with one of those ubiquitous and rather utopian-styled artist's impressions adjacent. The first phase of these plans, if approved, won't be realised until 2012 or beyond, yet envisaged here in 2011, fifty years after the R4 first rolled off the production line, is a Renault 4 sitting at the side of the road and representing quintessential daily French life. Indeed it is a van, no less, and it is prominently featured.
The artist could have chosen any sleek Lexus or other smarmy car to help reinforce their notion of the future, indeed one might have expected such a demand from the planners overseeing the design, but no. Perhaps to avoid being objectionable or merely to sneak in a tribute to a personal favourite, they went with a 4L.
So if you reached this article from reading the title and hoping for some exciting new announcement about the Renault's renaissance, you might be a little disappointed and wonder what I'm making such a fuss about. After all, the R4 must have been captured thousands of times in newspaper and media images during its distinguished history. However, its presence in this image of tomorrow made me smile and it serves as a little affirmation of its role in everyday French life of the future.
If you want to read the above newspaper article, view a PDF version here.
Within a month of publishing the above discovery, I again find reason to update this page upon receiving the latest copy of a local magazine, 'Lyon Citoyen', which is delivered to all residents of the city. Inside I found an article pertaining to another major thoroughfare in the city, this time containing a real photo instead of an imagined drawing:
It'll be a bit harder to pick out the interesting feature here until I show you a magnified part of the image:
Do you think they waited for that R4 to appear before taking the photo? Hey, it even looks like my own car, although I don't see the GB sticker and there appears to be a 'for sale' notice in the rear window. I think I've only driven down that boulevard one time before, and I wasn't selling anything.
So from a view of the future to a picture of the present, this is - still - what it looks like living in France today, though I have to remark that my daily sightings of fellow Four friends in Lyon have now become weekly or fortnightly events. Tourists whip out their cameras when they see me coming to take their chance in capturing a moment of French history (only to be bemused by my British number plate).
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