Of course, the Renault wasn’t called Caravelle (CC here) on the continent, where it was called the Floride. It was assumed that “Floride” would be a problem in the US, as it might insult the other 49 states. As if! But here it is in front of the other Caravelle (CC here) saying “Ahhh” while its tonsils are being inspected. Since it’s not a very flattering shot, here’s another.
Now there’s a photogenic threesome!
I flew on a Caravelle once, Air France from Hamburg to Paris in 1979. I drove a 356 once – a friend’s red Speedster. But I have no up close and personal experience with a Floride-Caravelle (other than a Dinky/France model of one).
What makes the French think their production cars were at any time desirable?
What makes the French think their production cars were at any time desirable?
Wait, huh? Let’s set aside the Delages, Tabot-Lagos, Bugattis, Delahayes of the pre-war era (they all pretty much defined the word “desirable” in the auto-sector) and just focus on the post war era:
Renault 12, 14, 15, 17, 18,19, 21, 25, 5, Super 5, Twingo, Clio, Megane, Espace, Scenic.
Peugeot 203, 204 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 504, 504 Coupe, 504 Cab, 604, 205 GTI, 105 GTI, 306 GTI, 206 GTI, 508, RCZ
Citroen: 2CV, DS, ID, SM, GS, CX, XM, Saxo, Xantia, C3, C4, DS3, DS4, DS5
Every single one of the above cars were desireable and I don’t think Peugeot, Citroen and Renault would be going concerns today if they built undesireable cars.
Sorry, French car haters are SO tiresome, boring and ignorant.
I read somewhere that the floride would be mixed up with flouride and hence the name change. I was woundering if this was true or not.
That’s how I read it. I did not immediately think of the state, but the water additive. Considering fluoridation of water became official US public health policy in 1960, it does make sense. Although if the proper French pronunciation is similar to a Spanish view of it (both Romance languages), then I can see the state of Florida confusion.
I have never seen a Renault Caravelle/Floride in person anywhere, but I have seen a Caravelle airplane on occasion.
I’d never made the Florida comparison until you mentioned it – I’d always assumed Floride was pronounced Flow-ride. That’s an idea for CC – an article establishing how to pronounce half the car names out there! Witness the Cressida COAL…is Cressida pronounced Cress-seed-ah (long ‘e’ sound), or is it Cress-sid-ah (short ‘sid’ sound)? And don’t get me started on Su-bar-u/Suba-ru…!
Florida was named as such by Ponce de Leon, a Spanish explorer. Since Spanish and French are close languages in Romance, phonetically would be similar. You would probably find it interesting to scan YouTube to find vids of people pronouncing all different sorts of things in different ways depending on their native tongue. I suspect that many old word name pronunciations have deviated from original form due to natural evolution of languages. Heck, the US pronunciation of many words has shifted markedly from it’s native British English, as it being the same at least in Australia, as a well traveled individual can quite easily tell a person’s native area often on dialect alone. I have talked to many Japanese and European car people that have pronounced their US market products in ways I don’t think was intended.
Geographic names are often different in different languages, and “Floride” is what Florida is called in French. The word florida means flowery in Spanish, and floride may have a similar meaning in French, although the Wikipedia article on the Renault Floride states that it was named after the U.S. State of Florida.
There are a number of U.S. states with latinate names ending in “a”, mostly old European colonies on the east or Gulf costs, that change to an “e” in French. IIRC:
Pennsylvanie
Virginie
Caroline du Nord
Caroline du Sud
Georgie
Floride
Louisiane
Californie
West Virginia is Virginie-Occidentale.
Aside from California, western states with names of Spanish origin do not have unique French names. States with names of Native American origin also generally do not have unique French names (although for the Dakotas the “North” and “South” parts are translated as they are for the Carolinas).
New Mexico is translated as Nouveau-Mexique, but the other “New” states do not have unique French names.
Cities can also have diferent names in different languages; the only two U.S. cities I can think of with different French forms are Philadelphia (Philadelphie) and New Orleans (La Nouvelle-Orleans).
As for Canadian provinces, there are:
Colombie-Brittanique
Nouveau-Brunswick
Nouveau-Ecosse
Ile-du-Prince-Edouard
Terre-Neuve
Nova Scotia means “New Scotland” in Latin; French translates this into French rather than leave it in Latin.
The major difference between French and Spanish is the French usually do not pronounce the last letter in a word.
Added to your list should be Detroit. He was a French explorer and here it is pronounced something like Day-twae. Took me years to figure it out.
Actually the French word for straight (as in a narrow body of water) is “détroit” derived from “des étroit” meaning the narrows, hence the name given by a French explorer.
A co-worker took a temporary job at an air base in Germany, and returned with a newish Subaru. We used to josh him quite a bit: “Jawohl, das Subaru!”
From the title I was surprised not to scroll down and see a Plymouth Caravelle.
Remember seeing a Caravelle airplane as a kid in Jax, Fl. Thought they were beautiful. Do not remember the car. Wonder how many caravelles are still airworthy?
I like this series. Keep it up!
Looking at that picture of the airplane with it’s nose cone open for service reminds me of a scene in Airplane! With Jimmy Walker (aka JJ Evans “Dy No Mite”) lifting up the nose of the plane checking the oil and taking a credit card payment from Captain Oveur (Peter Graves) when he was done.
I had my mother-in-law watch that movie in the early 80s when it came out on CED (what a medium that came and went) and she was in stitches.
I am the happy owner of a modern Renault Caravelle equivalent: a 2006 Megane CC (Cabrio-Coupé).
As you can see, this modern Renault convertible has a sharp-edge styling that is a little reminiscent of the original Caravelle’s sharp-edge styling. The bad thing of this modern design is of course the “bulbous butt syndrome” that most fold-away-hard-top convertibles suffer from. For the rest this is a great car to drive, with many nice design details (like, the hard top has a glass roof with retractable sunshade on the inside).
This is the before-present Renault Megane CC generation; the 2013 one has a “softer” styling (but of course I like mine better…)
— inserted here later: looks like you need to click the pic to enlarge it —
Except for the submerged water scoop, it kinda looks like the Amphicar!
They do look similar. The Renault Caravelle came first and they both ended in 1968.
The Caravelle was an attempt to conquer the US market like VW did with the Karrman based VW’s.
The original Floride/Caravelle was based on the Dauphine, however with the upgrade to receive Renault’s Sierra engine (fromt he R8) and its all-round disc brakes (also R8) the name in Europe was dropped and changed into Caravelle.
You can distinguish an early Floride from the ventilation inlets in the rear wings, Caravelles had a different bootlid with a grille init.
Some Caravelles were fitted with the tres-cool Jaeger sports-dash, a french accessoire you could also purchase for a DS and a 404 Peugeot.
Oh, Brigitte Bardot drove one at the time, so my Mom wanted one………………
Beautiful airplane. The car doesnt look bad either. I think United was the only US operator. The unusual features were the cruciform tail and triangular windows. Keep these rampside classics coming. Thanks.
If you ever visit S. Arizona, Pima Air Museum has a former UAL Caravelle, along with many other old a/c & helos. I understand its nose & cockpit were borrowed from the Comet.
I’ve read that too and, last week, finally got to verify it at the air museum at Le Bourget. They have a complete Caravelle nose section with viewing platform into the cockpit–aside from the throttles and engine gauges, it all looked to be pretty much Comet.
I remember seeing a Caravelle in a sad state of disrepair in the back of my local Renault dealer, who I got to know all too well thanks to my R15, which would need parts or repairs several times a week.
Any time I feel the least bit nostalgic about the car or forgiving towards Renault I only remember…at LEAST twice per week… >_<