The French Have Some Tasty Treats In Store For The Paris Motor Show

Normally, we'd save the most exciting show star for last, but the Citroen CXPerience design study is so outrageous that we felt it had to be focused on first. Though Citroen's quick to say this won't preview a production model, the CXPerience does showcase the design language of potentially an entire family of Citroen cars - kinda like how all the mainstream Citroen models appear to be taking on the styling cues of the odd-yet-adorable C4 Cactus crossover. Hopefully the next Citroen C5 (or, better still, an even bigger Citroen along the lines of the CX this design study pays homage to) will look as awesome as the CXPerience.

Following on from the CXPerience is the admittedly less flashy, but still striking, C3 hatchback. Apart from being the latest Citroen to follow in the C4 Cactus' wake, the new Citroen C3 also looks set to be quite a step forward from its predecessor. Build quality and customization options, for instance, clearly take inspiration from the DS3 (a car that, less we forget, originally began life as a Citroen before being siphoned off to the DS sister brand), and the Cactus' emphasis on practicality and comfort should be carried over to the C3. For sure, it's not instantly exciting, but the C3's a crucial car for Citroen, and we're hoping to get a closer look at it in Paris.

Citroen's parent company Peugeot also has some new vehicles to display at this year's Paris Motor Show, in the form of two SUVs (even though the larger of the pair, dubbed the 5008, is more a comprehensive facelift than a brand new car). As a result, it's the former we're more interested in - primarily because, as with the aforementioned Citroen C3, the Peugeot 3008 has all the makings of being a pretty sweet car. Peugeot's bound to sell thousands of them purely down to it being a mid-sized crossover, but being available with a swish 'i-Cockpit' interior, lots of safety gear and a range of all-new engines should make the 3008 a genuinely capable crossover.

Not wanting to be left out, Renault's also unveiling a few new vehicles at the Paris Motor Show. Though, when we say new, the only brand new offering that Renault's bringing to the expo center is the Alaskan pick-up truck, which some of you may remember from an article we published back in July. Even less groundbreaking are the announcements of facelifts for the Dacia Sandero range (yes, we know Dacia's a Romanian car maker, but it's owned by Renault and the Sandero's basically a Renault Clio underneath, so we're including the car in this piece). Now, if Renault were to bring something associated with the Alpine sports car we spotted testing a short while ago...