Happy caravanning!

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Villers-sur-Mer in the 1920s and Villers-sur-Mer in the 2020s: spot the differences between the two photographs. Oh, there is plenty to see, but it was the car-and-caravan combination in the black-and-white image that first attracted us to this postcard. What was that truly delightful little vehicle? Its body is flamboyantly 1920s in style, but surely the wheels, chassis and much of the rest appear rather older?

Well, we found it. The car turns out to be a 1909 De Dion-Bouton Type CD, rebodied in 1921 by Monsieur Charles Louvet, who was also responsible for the caravan behind it – as well as the canoe carried on top! Indeed, Louvet became something of a well-known figure in southern France after taking his unusual combination on a number of journeys, both for pleasure and publicity. He is said to have charged visitors an admission fee to view the caravan’s interior, while selling postcards and photographs to help finance his next projects.

These included several larger caravans and motor caravans, built using lightweight construction techniques borrowed from the aviation industry. Each was named ‘Carling Home’, after the French word carlingue, meaning an aircraft cabin. This particular example was Carling Home No. 1.

The various images shown below are a mixture of postcards and archive photographs from the Bibliothèque nationale de France. They show Louvet’s Carling Home No. 1 not only in Villers-sur-Mer, but also outside the casino in Cannes and at Juan-les-Pins. Oh, happy caravanning days!

Words: Jeroen Booij
Pictures: Gilles Fillaud / Bibliothèque nationale de France

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