The former women of the Compiègne Museum

The National Car Museum at the Château de Compiègne will be open during European Heritage Days on Saturday, September 16 and Sunday, September 17.

What better way to understand the future of automobiles than to take a closer look at its history? On the occasion of Heritage Days, admission to the National Car Museum at the Château de Compiègne will be free from 10 am to 6 pm for two days.

You will be able to discover an exceptional collection of horse-drawn vehicles from the 17th to early 20th centuries, automobiles and cycles, as well as an important iconographic collection on the theme of transportation.

From the horse to the horsepower

The National Car Museum was established in 1927 at the initiative of the Touring Club of France, thanks to its Vice President Léon Auscher, a professional coachbuilder. Leading coachbuilders present at the Universal Expositions wanted to create a history of land transportation and contribute to the preservation of horse-drawn and automotive heritage, threatened by rapid changes in road transport at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, it offers an overview of the history of passenger transport, especially the transition from animal traction to automobiles, with vehicles originating from Europe as well as other continents.

Its first-rate collection includes about a hundred horse-drawn vehicles from the 17th to early 20th centuries, around thirty automobiles representing the birth of the transport mode, a section dedicated to the history of cycles, and items illustrating railway transport, human traction, and carrying methods.

La Jamais Contente breaks the 100 km/h barrier

A flagship piece of the museum, La Jamais Contente, an electric car designed and driven by Belgian Camille Jenatzy, was the first automobile to exceed 100 kilometers per hour, in 1899, on the plains of Achères in the Yvelines.