Travellers' Checks | A Tintin book come alive: retro theme park for car enthusiasts to open in France
Vintage Bel-Air, near La Rochepot, in Burgundy, northern France, celebrates the heyday of driving holidays – with an experience akin to driving around in a Jacques Tati film or a Tintin book
Bon voyage A group of French car enthusiasts is hoping to breathe new life into a once-popular scenic rest stop area in Burgundy on the former Route Nationale 6. This was the main road for holidaymakers driving between Paris and the south of France from the 1950s to the 1970s, when it was superseded by the A6 motorway.
The retro-styled theme park at La Rochepot, called Vintage Bel-Air, will cover 30 hectares and contain original art deco garage buildings, re-created vintage road signs and picturesque picnic spots – all designed to let nostalgic tourists drive around to their hearts’ content in a recreation of the heyday of the classic French motoring holiday.
Among 20 permanent installations will be a large indoor exhibition called “Sur la route des vacances” (“on the holiday route”), a drive-in cinema and a comic-book exhibit. If the reality is anything like the website, it will be a bit like driving around in a Tintin book, or an old Jacques Tati film such as Mr Hulot’s Holiday (1953) or Trafic (1971).
The pleasures and occasional frustrations of driving around the French countryside are beautifully presented, and clearly explained, in the DK Eyewitness Travel guide, Back Roads France (2016).
