American collector Peter Mullin shipped over a stunning selection of Art Deco beauties to Paris, including his Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic (front) and the Voisin that took Best In Show at Pebble Beach last year.

Ever heard of a Renault Alliance? It was, as the name implies, an 80s tie-up between Renault and AMC in the United States. AMC designed and built this Renault 9-based convertible. Hardly glamorous, but different

Arguably the centrepiece of this year’s show was a fabulous Renault display that celebrated 50 years of the Alpine A110 and 40 years of the Renault 5 – we loved this unrestored ‘Around the world in 80 days’ example.

Model cars have always featured strongly in Retromobile’s high-class automobilia sections; French cars predominate, naturally, but as this selection shows, there really is something here for everyone.

Mercedes-Benz had an effectively minimalist presentation of three significant cars from its history at the Le Mans 24 Hours: 1931 SSK, 1953 SL (the first race car to use a wing?) and 1989 Sauber Mercedes C9.

A surprise from London dealer and historic racer Gregor Fisken was the well-known 1908 Panhard regularly campaigned by VSCC stalwart Mark Walker. UK enthusiasts will be dismayed if it ends up going abroad.

We can’t resist showing yet another amphibious car, the utterly bizarre Comete of 1932. Designed as a light car for the French Army, when running on land a stabiliser system keeps it upright on just two wheels!

As usual, British classic car dealers had some of the rarest exhibits: Hall & Hall showed the Audi Type D ‘silver arrow’, withdrawn from the Christies auction at Retromobile in 2007 and now fully validated by Audi Tradition.

Another typically fascinating Retromobile stand was dedicated to low-production French cars built by men with a vision – in the foreground is the Matra Djet/Renault 16-based Renaudat, created by Guy Renaudat in 1968.

Octane goes native – French and Italian editions of Octane are now being produced, with another soon to be launched in Germany. The Octane France stand appropriately featured a locally registered Ford GT40.

Citroen had an art theme to its stand, which included no fewer than 14 Citroen clubs; among the exhibits was this GS painted by French artist Jean Pierre Lihou in 1976. This year also marked 30 years of the BX.

It wasn’t just Bugatti that dabbled with the ‘tank’ style of racing car in the 1920s – here’s a 1925 Chenard & Walcker ‘Tank 21’, with one of its predecessors behind; right is a Hotchkiss limo.

BMW Motorsport had a small but fascinating selection of cars on display, including this 1949 Formula 2 single-seater, which combined a BMW 328 engine with 326 running gear, and could reach 120mph on a circuit.

Auction houses Artcurial and Bonhams both had sizeable sales taking place to coincide with RÈtromobile; among the Artcurial lots shown here is film director Roger Vadim’s silver Ferrari 250GT lwb California Spider.

Typifiying what makes Retromobile unique is this line-up of amphibious cars, headed by the 1.9-litre Peugeot-powered Hobbycar of 1995 – the first amphibious vehicle made in France for the civilian market.