National Automobile Museum – Schlumpf Collection, Mulhouse, France
Until November 11, 2025
Organized in close cooperation with the Hergé Foundation, the “En Voiture avec Tintin” (Riding with Tintin) exhibition at the National Automobile Museum – Schlumpf Collection offers a unique immersion in the automotive world of Tintin. Hergé, the famous creator of the globe-trotting reporter Tintin, was himself a great car enthusiast. All Tintin adventures feature cars, often as part of the story or gag, or symbolic of the character who owns or drives it.
As with other forms of transport (planes, motorcycles, boats, etc.), Hergé didn’t worry too much about realism at first. But as time went by and the adventures progressed, he added a concern for authenticity, and the vehicles were drawn precisely or very close to reality, making many of the cars highly identifiable. Thanks to the success of his hero, Hergé built up a rich archive of drawings and photos, from which he drew inspiration for his Tintin adventures. Around 70 car models have been identified in the various Tintin adventures.
After an initial selection based on the cars owned by the National Automobile Museum, the final choice fell on a dozen or so cars on display “in real life”. Upon entering the museum, visitors are greeted by a long animated fresco showing characters on the deck of a boat, typical of Hergé’s clear-line drawings, a perfect invitation to the journey ahead. This is followed by large-scale reproductions of cars from the albums, leading up to the theme of the exhibition: Buick Roadmaster, Lancia Aprilia and Renault NN Taxi.
The first part of the “En Voiture avec Tintin” exhibition showcases the dozen or so full-size models, displayed in front of huge drawings depicting them in the Tintin albums, in the rural settings of the Château de Moulinsart. The Dupond and Dupont’s Citroën 2 CV is displayed in front of the drawing, where their bowler hats get stuck in the hood when they brake too hard! Particularly emblematic of the National Automobile Museum, the Bugatti Type 35 is seen in the hands of a gangster in Tintin in America. While it is red in the album, the Type 35 is displayed in a more traditional blue.
It is surrounded by 2 “oldtimers”, the Ford T from Tintin in Congo and the Citroën 5HP also driven by Dupond and Dupont. Opposite them, 2 other Vintage cars with 2 Amilcars, sports cars that Tintin obviously drives with dexterity! Tintin often uses cabs to get around, whether in pursuit of an enemy or to evade him, or for more conventional journeys. Simca Aronde, Panhard Dyna or Peugeot 203 and 403 are classic cab models from the period when Hergé was developing his hero’s adventures.
The Citroën Traction was another classic car from the 1930s to the end of the 1950s, so it’s only logical that it should feature in Tintin albums, as in the 6-cylinder 15 hp version in the hands of the “bad guys” in “The Calculus Case”. More rarely, in the album “The Black Island”, Tintin embarks on a caravan pulled by the Triumph Herald of British tourists, a short trip that ends badly. While the caravan is shown in a large-scale reproduction, the Triumph Herald is on display…
For each car “in real”, a display case shows the model as it appears in the album, with archive documents from the Hergé Foundation: album pages, drawings, photos, documentation used in preparation… Other display cases show models not on display, such as the butcher’s van.
A complete wall also shows the heroes, Tintin and Captain Haddock, walking towards the Château de Moulinsart, the Captain’s property, which is also close to reality, having been drawn from the Château de Cheverny. On several occasions, Hergé also had fun incorporating into his stories cars he had owned himself: Lancia Aprilia, Opel Olympia, Porsche 356 and a “Mesange” from the Belgian Imperia brand.
The second part of the exhibition takes visitors behind the scenes, looking at the process of creating a Tintin adventure, while maintaining the link with the automobile as a common thread. Cars that didn’t make it into the exhibition are presented in scale models. In the colors of their appearance in the albums, and with the characters or accessories from the comics, the whole forms a colorful wall. Another wall, the one created with the covers of Tintin albums in numerous languages, testifies to the universal success of the globe-trotter.
Numerous archive documents, sketches, drawings and models reveal the author’s sources and the various stages of creation. You’ll discover Hergé’s working methods, totally innovative in the world of comics, with a reconstitution of the Tintin’s father desk, at the heart of the Hergé studios, created in 1950. Archivists, illustrators, colorists… work around Hergé, the sole master of the little reporter’s adventures.
As an added bonus to the “En voiture avec Tintin” exhibition, photographs tell the story of Swiss journalist Leonard Gianadda, who traveled the world between 1953 and 1961. Like Tintin, he visited the USA, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Russia, Africa and the Mediterranean. Comparing the photos of characters, scenes and landscapes with the Hergé’s drawings in albums shows an astonishing encounter between fiction and reality. We can see the care Hergé took to ensure the precision and realism of certain situations, proof of the importance he placed on documenting the countries Tintin discovers and the civilizations he encounters.
The exhibition “En Voiture avec Tintin” ends with a reproduction of Tintin’s living room, with its famous red armchair and simple decor, as seen in some of the albums. Here, the hero can enjoy a well-deserved rest after his automotive adventures!
As you leave the permanent collections area of the National Automobile Museum, don’t forget to stop by the Atelier Bar, perhaps for a drink, but also to access the museum’s courtyard, where stands an over six meters high model of the red-and-white chequered rocket, with the ultimate car at its side, a Jeep that features in several albums, including “Destination Moon” and “Explorers on the Moon” …..
Of course, the Museum’s boutique is also in tune with this major exhibition. Visitors will naturally find the complete collection of Tintin albums, as well as a wide variety of objects and souvenirs, models, figurines, textiles, books…
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