The Citroën DS, the French Riviera and the joy of driving a car where it belongs

There are some cars that seem inseparable from the places that created them.

A Land Rover crossing Africa. An Alfa Romeo threading its way through an Italian hill town. A Porsche heading towards the Alps.

And then there’s the Citroën DS in France.

In the first episode of Kevin McCloud’s Classic Car, the designer and broadcaster gets behind the wheel of one of the most distinctive cars ever made and heads for the French Riviera.

It’s a fitting place to start a series built around a brilliantly simple idea: explore a country through the cars it created.

A car that still looks like it arrived from the future

The Citroën DS was unveiled at the 1955 Paris Motor Show and caused a sensation.

Even today, more than 70 years later, it looks extraordinary.

The sweeping bodywork, covered rear wheels, impossibly elegant proportions and famously sophisticated hydropneumatic suspension made it unlike almost anything else on the road.

The car McCloud drives is more special still: a DS Décapotable, the glamorous open-topped version that seems almost purpose-built for the Côte d’Azur.

Roof down, Mediterranean alongside and the roads of southern France stretching ahead, it’s one of those combinations of car and place that just makes sense.

The road is part of the experience

That’s what makes the programme particularly interesting to us at Stradora.

This isn’t simply a television show about classic cars.

It’s about what happens when you use a car to experience somewhere.

The roads matter. The scenery matters. The towns you pass through, the food you stop for and the people you meet along the way all become part of the journey.

In episode one, that means the French Riviera, before McCloud eventually reaches Monaco and takes on perhaps the world’s most recognisable street circuit in a rather less sporting classic Citroën.

It is road travel at its best. The destination matters, but so does everything between A and B.

Why great cars belong in great places

There’s another idea at the heart of the series that we particularly like.

Driving an interesting car in the place that created it can completely change the experience.

You understand a small Italian sports car differently on a twisting road through the Dolomites. An old Land Rover makes more sense on an African dirt track. A classic French car feels somehow more appropriate passing cafés, vineyards and villages than it ever could sitting under fluorescent lights at a car show.

You don’t necessarily need to own the car either.

An increasing number of specialist driving experiences provide the vehicle as part of the journey. That might mean a classic roadster in Portugal, a sports car in the Alps, a 4×4 in Africa or something considerably more unusual further afield.

For us, that’s one of the joys of discovering what’s out there.

Watch the full episode

Channel 4 has made the complete first episode of Kevin McCloud’s Classic Car available to watch free on its official Channel 4 on Tour YouTube channel.

WATCH THE FULL EPISODE HERE

Kevin McCloud Tests France’s Most Iconic Classic Car | Kevin McCloud’s Classic Car

Fancy putting yourself behind the wheel?

Watching programmes like this usually produces the same reaction.

I’d love to do that.

And that’s really where Stradora begins.

There are extraordinary driving and riding experiences happening all over the world, many created by small specialist operators that can be surprisingly difficult to discover unless you already know what you’re looking for.

Stradora brings them together in one place.

From classic cars and grand tourers to motorcycles, 4x4s and campervans, there are now more than 1,850 journeys across 112 countries to explore.

Some involve taking your own vehicle. Others put the keys to something special in your hand when you arrive.

All of them start with the same idea.

Sometimes the best way to experience somewhere is from the road.

Don’t visit the world. Drive it.

Watch

Kevin McCloud Tests France’s Most Iconic Classic Car | Kevin McCloud’s Classic Car
Channel 4 on Tour, YouTube
First broadcast: 18 October 2026

Hero image: Kevin McCloud with the Citroën DS Décapotable on the French Riviera. Image courtesy of Channel 4.

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