I have already written that during my school holidays I worked for an Citroën dealer, so it’s not strange that I’ve owned several Citroëns. Apart from the 1959 2CV and the 2CV Delivery Van, I have also had a 1967 Citroën DS 21 Pallas.

I bought it in 1974. It was a half-automatic: no clutch pedal, only a small selector lever on the dashboard. It was a beautiful car to see, but the owner wanted to get rid of it, because his dog had taken a hefty bite out of the rear seat. Apart from that it also produced a very strange noise when you selected first gear and started to drive. The rear seat was quickly repaired by draping a blanket over it, but the strange noise was not so easily repaired. It grew from bad to worse until I finally found out that it came from the front wheel drive. To have that repaired was going to cost more than the DS was worth. I therefore sold it to the local Fire Department who could it for one of their demonstrations. In hindsight I regret that this DS went up in flames, because from the outside it really looked well. The only thing I have left as a memory is the license document, which I kept all these years.