Not The French Town You Were Looking For: COTY

Cotd 052423
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Hello Autopians, I’m back! I have lots to write about from my westward travels. I’ve been to places I had previously only seen online and had so much fun over more than the past week. Yet, somehow, I kept on striking out on flights. I’ve been taking red eye flights almost exclusively, where I’ve learned that I just cannot sleep on a plane. Maybe it’s the tiny seats, being forced to sit upright, or no real room to get into a comfortable position. Whatever the reason, I’ve been chugging through several days with not even a power nap. So, it’s good to be home and next to my own bed and steps away from my own cars.
Cold Start Civic

This morning, Jason wrote another one of those confusing car brochure cold starts. Here, we’re looking at what appears to be an American market Honda CVCC in what looks like a European city with French signage but people who are dressed up quite German-like. Maybe, like me, whoever made this brochure was jet-lagged and working on very little sleep.

The car itself was also pretty weird, with holes in its rear end. Jason also found another picture showing a CVCC with an odd rear light arrangement.

Well, our genius readers have some good suggestions about what’s going on here. Sid Bridge takes COTD with this funny bit:

Tourist in Honda: Hello there! Is this Alsace, France?
German: Yes. Zis is France.
Tourist: But… you’re German. You’re all German.
German: Zis. is. France.
Tourist: But I’m looking for…
German: Move along before ve call ze French authorities.

In all seriousness, this could have been taken in Alsace! Saltier makes an educated guess:

Good guess on Disney.

Another explanation might be Strasbourg in Alsace on the French border with Germany. That explains the mixture of French signage and German attire. However, There’s no good way to explain away the decidedly Bavarian Lederhosen.

Where ever they shot it, I think the main takeaway is that Honda was trying to sell Civics on both sides of the Rhine.

Alsace has a history of switching between German and French control and having influences from both countries. Apparently, almost half of its residents speak Alsatian, a Germanic dialect. The dominant language in the region is French, the cuisine has German influence, and the area is reportedly a bit not quite French, but also not quite German.

As for the CVCC Jason found with the weird lights, I searched for over an hour and don’t have any answers. Should we find them, I’ll be sure to slide in an explanation somewhere.

Have a great evening everyone!

Top image Mickey Mouse inset: Disney via everycharacter.com

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10 thoughts on “Not The French Town You Were Looking For: COTY

  1. As I pointed out in my original post to Torch’s article, I have lived there. All these things exist in one place. It is not the Alsace. It is considerably further south in the Swiss/French Tyrol. That is Swiss as in not German. The oval shadow was easily explained as a place where a country indicator placard was bolted or pop riveted to the panel. Someone else posted nearly the exact same information albeit a bit snarky.

    I know this is a fun place where we are all supposed to be full of mirth and supposedly inexplicable things, but geez get a grip. Accept facts for what they are. Quit pretending you don’t get it in order to extend the silliness. As to CVCC or not, what has that to do with the original premise.

    And yes, I am a testy old grump with a warped but very real sense of humor. Thanks for reading! Opa

  2. This brochure was really bothering me because the location was somehow both very familiar and obviously fake. After some extensive detective work, I finally identified the location as not Alsace, or Germany, or any part of Switzerland. It is, in fact, part of the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot – specifically, the “European Street” set: https://www.universalstudioslot.com/backlot/3401/european-street

    I thought, why would that place seem so familiar to me? I don’t remember taking that tour. Then it hit me, HOLY FORKING SHIRTBALLS – that’s The Good Place!!
    https://storage.googleapis.com/moviemaps/img/1i0o.c0a352.940.jpg

    So, mystery solved. Whew, now I can go back to working or whatever.

  3. Many years ago, I had two of these, at different times, a gold pre-facelift ’76 hatchback that I brought to Germany when assigned there, and a white ’78, which had post-facelift integrated ambers at the back. In all these years, I’e never seen or heard of that oddball lighting arrangement on the white car above. However…heads-up lighting fetishistas…for many years, American cars imported to Denmark, before they could be certified road-worthy, lighting-wise, had all kinds of weird mods and amber add-ons attached, front and back, including the requirement for a small white parking lamp at the front, in tandem with amber turns, I think it was the same for Norway and Sweden. This modification on the Civic above reminds me of that.

  4. Mir rede Elsassich!

    It’s kind of getting rarer nowadays but older generations all speak Alsacian. It makes sense considering my great grand ma was born in Germany, my grand ma was born in France, went 6 years to German school and then French school again.

    It’s a fascinating region of France, with a peculiar architecture, cuisine, history and mentality. Go there if you get the chance! Colmar is a jewel.

  5. I’m so clueless that I recently had to ask a French friend whether Alsace was currently part of France or not.
    (At school I remember covering Alsace–Lorraine after WW1, but not the subsequent history)

    1. If I’m recalling my history correctly Alsace has changed hands a number of times. I don’t know the full history prior to the 1800s but the region was held by the French until the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871. It then remained in German hands until just after the end of WWI when it was returned to France. It was taken over by the Germans again in the 1940 invasion and returned to France at the end of WWII. Again, this is from memory but it’s the general gist.

      1. My family originally came from Alsace. My ancestors lived on the same patch of land there and alternated between French and German control for generations. Germany was not united at the time. The people stayed put but the banners changed depending on who’d won the most recent war.

        They got tired of all that and immigrated to the U.S., landing in New Orleans in the 1850s. Not exactly perfect timing if you’re crossing an ocean to avoid a war in your backyard…

  6. Congrats on the Comment of the Yesterday!

    Are we sure this picture wasn’t some dark alternate timeline where the bad guys won the war? Sort of a Man in the High Castle situation?

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