Iconic Renault 12 and Peugeot 504: Vehicles of North African Diaspora’s Annual Homecoming

"These are two totally iconic vehicle models and these are two cars that carry stories. They are formidable story machines. It’s a kind of diversion, that is to say that I consider the automobile as part of our heritage, our industrial heritage. And as soon as we are interested in the people who were inside these cars, then it becomes an extremely moving heritage," explains Mohamed El Khatib in an interview given to Radio France on the sidelines of the celebration of the 90th edition of the Paris Motor Show.

According to the director, these two models were of great use in the return to the homeland for North Africans: "The R12 and the 504 have this strength to connect us with the other side of the Mediterranean. They were the link between the two shores of the Mediterranean. In the 1970s and 1980s, they allowed thousands of families to cross France, to cross part of Europe and to go and join their family in the Maghreb."

They were very practical models in view of their characteristics. "The peculiarity of these cars is that they had an extremely solid axle. These are extremely robust models and we could therefore load them, overload them," explains El Khatib. "In fact, it’s quite amusing when you hear Robert Broyer, the inventor of the R12, talking to you. He tells you: ’But I hadn’t anticipated, because the manufacturers had told me to make sure that we could put two or three suitcases maximum, in the back. And I hadn’t imagined for a single moment that people would put on roof racks and put a dozen suitcases... on the car!’"

These cars, however, present dangers. "They were indestructible, they were overloaded. So they were ’Towers of Babel on wheels’ with what that entailed in terms of risks. That is to say that in case of drowsiness or bad braking, it was an entire family that went into a roll. It was extremely dangerous and at the same time, there was something very joyful. These kitsch objects, these kinds of moving cathedrals, these hordes like that who went on the attack of the road, it was extremely beautiful to see," the director of the film "Renault 12" and the documentary "504" broadcast on France.tv still explains.

The R12 and the 64 remain celebrated as icons, but the time of the famous summer journeys of the "cathedral cars" is over. Today, young people no longer have the opportunity to live these epics. "Today, you take the plane and in two hours, you are in Morocco or Algeria. There are hotels on the road, the cars are air-conditioned. You no longer live this unique experience of several days in an altered state. And somewhere, these journeys cemented the family and participated in the family history. Today, it’s over." And to continue: "And the relationships are therefore reversed. In the documentary, one of the women actually says: ’Before, we went to beg in Algeria, Now, I buy things in Algeria and bring them back to France,’ and she concludes that ’Algeria has become France and France has become Algeria’."