Retromobile kicked off this year with several novelties. The 2026 edition features new premises and a new Supercar Garage exhibition. This marks the 50th anniversary of Retromobile, and the organisers have secured all the right ingredients. If you read that the classic car market is overheating, Paris did not get that memo: the lavish exhibition is accompanied by five major auctions.
The 2026 Rétromobile opened its doors this Wednesday and will remain open until Sunday afternoon, with generous opening hours (extended until 22.00 on Friday). The exhibition is located at the usual venue in the Expo Area at Porte de Versailles (1 place de la Porte de Versailles 75015 Paris). This year, the show returned to Hall 7, which hosted the 2022 edition, the show we loved the least.
The show occupied three floors of Hall 7 and half of Hall 4, which also hosts a Supercar Garage during the weekend.
The Retromobile 2026 ticket only gives access to half of this hall, which functions as a budget classic car market (though the price limit of 30.000 euros puts it slightly on the bargain side).In addition to a Retromobile shop, there is a stage showcasing the anniversary cars of 2026.
Hall 7.1 (the ground floor) hosts the official auction of the show. Following decades of successful cooperation with the Parisian auction house Artcurial, Gooding & Christie’s took over the official Rétromobile 2026 auction.
The Gooding auction features several exclusive lots, destined to be sold to collectors and enthusiasts from around the world. A key moment of the show is the auction bidding on 29 January, where history, rarity and emotion come together under the hammer.
The Paris Auction Week grew into an unprecedented show of force.
This year, Retromobile is reinforced with four external auctions. These Auctions usually take place during the week of Rétromobile, and each is a car show in its own right. Artcurial lost the title of the show’s official auctioneer, sending them to the Peninsula Hotel.
As in the previous years, Sotheby’s bunk in the city centre in the Louvre, while Bonhams moved outside to a Polo Club. Another newcomer is Broad Arrow: Hagerty’s auctioneer installed its auction in the Roland Garros stadium.
These four auctioneers built a smaller stage to showcase their activity and also provide a starting point for interested visitors, as they also provide shuttle service from their booths in Hall 7.3 to the auction sites in Paris.
For their location, see the map below:
Retromobile’s new layout plays to its advantages.
We had some concerns when we saw that Retromobile moved to Hall 7, but in the end, they proved unfounded. While this triple-floor hall does not reproduce the magnificent internal height of the gigantic Hall 1, the ground floor is sufficient to accommodate massive objects, such as tanks and trains.
The ground floor of Hall 7 (7.1) also hosted several museums. The Armoured Vehicle Museum of Saumur presented on its stand the LVT A1 from 1944, an amphibious assault tank in the service of American forces and a plane that crash landed (or parked in a Parisian way…).
If you thought that a tank seems a bit excessive at a car museum, wait until you see the next one: the Cité du Train presented the Bugatti “Presidential” Railcar. This railcar is powered by four eight-cylinder engines derived from Bugatti Royales, developing nearly 800 horsepower. It embodies Ettore Bugatti’s ambition to transpose automotive performance into the railway world.
The Railcar was used by the presidents of the French Republic from 1933 and now resides in Mulhouse at their transport museum.
The stage is complemented by the National Automobile Museum of Mulhouse, one of the world’s best car museums (also in our books). It houses a unique collection of over 400 exceptional cars, including the largest Bugatti collection ever assembled.
In the segment dedicated to the genius of Ettore Bugatti, nine extraordinary Bugatti models are displayed from the Schlumpf Collection, including a rare Bugatti Type 64 Coach from 1939.
Leaving the ground floor, Hall 7.2 also hosts several thematic exhibitions, even though it is dedicated to car brands.
The exhibition Steve McQueen, a passion for speed, immerses visitors into the life of Steve McQueen, showcasing the Hollywood legend’s passion for motorbikes and sports cars, on a stage evoking scenes from his films. We also loved the upcoming M24 Museum complementing the existing Le Mans Museum.
The second thematic expo recalled the golden age of world rallying from the 1960s to the 1990s. The organisers managed to secure classics like the Ford Cortina, Lotus MK1, and Toyota Celica GT-4 ST165, as well as legends like the Lancia Stratos, Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, and the Audi Quattro, reflecting nearly 30 years of motorsport adventures in Pavilion 7.2.
The 7.2 floor is primarily dedicated to brand stages, and the next exhibition is leading in that direction. Retromobile 2026’s central theme summoned BMW’s Art Car series. As part of the BMW Art Car World Tour, the world’s most exciting pop-up garage parked the seven 7 BMW Art Cars that raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. We are long-time fans of this car series, and were happy to see another iteration, as the selection is never the same.
Here we take a rhetorical break to make sure that you get to see our first impressions before the show closes. In case you are still undecided, we highly recommend this event. Stay tuned for the next part:
