Today we will visit Saint-Tropez as we get into the mood of the Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez series! The series features many fine cars, like a 1948 Buick convertible, popular cars from the early 1960s like Triumph and especially two Mustangs, which are these days true icons to many of us! The 2CV has already been featured before, with the formidable nun! (Ah, mon fils!). The series starts when gendarme Cruchot gets a promotion and moves with his daughter Nicole from his remote mountain village to the fashionable port of Saint-Tropez. To get you in the mood of this article click here and listen to some great tunes from the series, or click here for a shot and funny impressions! The black 1948 Buick convertible is from a youthful gang, who notice Cruchot’s daughter on the key of the port, wearing totally unsuitable clothes for the fashionable Saint-Tropez. She quickly got herself into something more fashionable, but still out of place, and makes all the girls believe that this is the latest trend in Hawaii and soon everybody walks around in the same dress! She takes her lies a bit too fas as she made the Buick-hangers believe that the huge yacht in the port belongs to her dad… It actually was rented by a rich American criminal who has just stolen a Rembrandt painting.

Now comes the best part for us… This gangster is also the owner of a striking red first series Mustang convertible! The Mustang is stolen for a joyride by the boyfriend of Nicole and they get stuck on a remote dirt track out in the countryside. Next day the fuming Cruchot goes out to recover the red flame and, after quite a lot of trouble, tries to bring it back to its owner, secretly… However, on the way back he gets, in the stolen Mustang, an unwanted escort from a couple of motor-gendarmes with their sirens at full volume. Click here for the red flame in action, what an incredible car! : ) 

This part of the series is really hilarious, as Cruchot steals a tractor from a farmer to extract the Mustang from the dirt track. Eventually he ends up at a party with the stolen Rembrandt, something you just have to see! Here is one of those awkward situations that Cruchot gets himself into… 

There is also a fast white Mustang convertible in another of the Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez movie. It is the car of Madame la Colonel Josepha, with a really great multi-tone horn (sadly no vid of this). After this lady has violated the law going at super speeds, Cruchot catches her like THIS… It is spoken in German, but no doubt this adds to the fun of this caption!To continue, I plan to stay in sunny southern France and will announce something great in my next article, hopefully tomorrow!

Who doesn’t love Louis de Funès : )Written by Rosemarijn Atalante Veenenbos