Picture Motorcycle: DUSTY MILLIONS

Jaguar lightweight E-type racer...

The luxury of attending the launch party for this year's Tour Auto was a gift from Motul, as someone there understands motorcyclists need love too...and champagne. Tour Auto is a 5-day 'race' across France, Paris to Biarritz, taken in stages with daily time totals, driven on back roads and proper race tracks when they lay on the rally route, and do they ever. Day 1 incorporates the Montlhery circuit, although the road course, and 'not the banking'...every day incorporates a race track; Pau, LeMans, Ville de Vienne, etc. At the end of the week, time is calculated, winners are declared, and 300 rare and valuable race cars taken back to whence they came. The theme for 2011 is 'Zagato', so there were plenty of Alfas, Maseratis, and Aston Martins with double-bubbles...

An odd trio, certainly! Dino, Elan, Corvette

For the party, every sponsor had a tent at which to display their wares, while doling out obligatory canapés and bubbles. If said sponsor was a bank, with nothing to display (besides the Money in copious abundance all around us), there were only platters of snacks and more champagne; these were the preferred watering holes. Given the location of the party (the Jardin des Tuilieries, next to the Louvre, in Paris), and the sort of cars in this esteemed temporary parking lot, I guesstimate the fee for such a week's joy in the high five figures. But the looking, for you and me, is absolutely free, so enjoy the photos, and b.y.o. champagne.

Brand new Norton Manx - keeping off dust in the Tuilieries is impossible..

I know you are a'feared this will be a 'car story', but two of the sponsors brought motorcycles to their tents; BMW and Norton. BMW of Paris, who put on such a splendid show at the Paris Photo Expo this winter, had only modern two-wheelers on the floor, but the Paris Norton importer had a new Manx, which seemed apropos in the automotive company.

Ruby's Jérome Coste, master of moto-chic

With 8000 attendees milling about, it was a certainty to run into a few motorcyclists too, and Jérome Coste of Ruby Helmets was happy to have won his first 'cease and desist' case against a Ruby clone. Jérome also mentioned immediate plans to release Ruby leather riding gear, and is hoping that next year some of the Tour Auto drivers will wear Ruby helmets for four-wheel racing. A full-face design is in prototype now; can't wait to see it, and I'll do a feature on Ruby shortly...