by Lisa Marlin
Around The World: At the Pierre Michel French Cafe in Littleton, Camilo Salazar, left, and Gary Daniels, met up with Jie Ding, Chang Luo, and their daughter Yuding who are traveling around the world in their 1985 Citroën 2CV.
England. Russia. China. Colorado. Nine months into their two-year road trip, the Luo Family has traveled to all these places with their primary mode of transportation being a red 1985 Citroën 2CV. This small, no-frills French car was produced from the late 1940s to 1990 and still garners interest worldwide.
A group of Denver-area Citroën enthusiasts greeted Chang Luo, wife Jie Ding, both 38, and their four-year-old daughter Yuding, when the family stopped for lunch at a French café in Littleton on January 31. They’d recently journeyed to the Arctic Circle and were driving south through the Americas.
“It’s just life on the road,” said Ding, after unbuckling Yuding from a car seat in the back where their luggage is also stacked. “Chang enjoys cars so much and I enjoy traveling and meeting people so much and this car just combines our interests, so we enjoy it.”
This is not their first road trip. In 2011, Luo got the job of an automobile engineer in London. Before moving there, he and Ding carefully studied the feasibility of driving from their home in Shanghai to his new job in London along the ancient Silk Road and decided to do it. Five years later he bought and restored the Citroën, then he quit his job so he and Ding could take their young daughter on an even longer road trip before she starts school. Why travel in a 33-year-old car? “This car is very interesting. I put a lot of effort into it. It has to be this car,” he said.
Ding said the experience enriches their family time. “For two years we can spend 24 hours a day together, to plan together, to see things together. I think that’s really important and we appreciate that we have this time to do that,” she said.
The first leg of their trip began in April 2017 when they left England and drove through 19 countries on their way to China to visit family and friends. From there, they shipped the car to Vancouver, British Columbia.
“I do almost all the driving,” Luo said. “And the car needs attention from time to time, maintenance, servicing, and I do it all myself.” This seemed to be especially true in Colorado. “The elevation of Colorado is phenomenal, and the car feels it. The power has lost quite a few horses I would say, and the start can be quite tricky.”
He lifted the hood as the local Citroën enthusiasts gathered to peer inside and talk with him about the engine. Among them was Camilo Salazar who has owned several of the cars and keeps in contact with other owners around the world; that’s how he heard about the Luos’ trip and began emailing with them to help coordinate their trip through Colorado.
“The Citroën has the most impressive suspension in automobiles ever,” Salazar said, which makes it great for long distance trips. He said it’s also very simple to work on. “It’s basically a glorified lawnmower,” he said, which makes it louder than most cars and slower, topping out at 70 miles per hour.
Denverite Gary Daniels drove his Citroën across town to meet the Luos. It’s one of several he’s owned over the years. “Everybody has an interest in the car. You just have to ride in one,” Daniels said. “It’s so very versatile.”
Versatility can be important when traveling around the world in a car. Even though the Luos have a general plan to reach Argentina in a year, they’re not following a
Under The Hood: The Citroën is an air-cooled front-engine, front-wheel-drive economy car introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial de Automobile and manufactured by Citroën for model years 1948-1990. In total, Citroën manufactured almost 9 million 2CVs and variants.
direct route by any means. After leaving Denver, they drove up Pike’s Peak, which was on their must-visit list in Colorado, but then changed their plans to head south from there, and instead ventured toward Montreal to celebrate the Chinese New Year with friends. On February 20, they sent word that they would be going to New York before traveling toward southern California where they’ll cross the border into Mexico. Wherever they go, they mostly stay in the homes of families they meet along the way or that they find through hospitality and networking services such as CouchSurfing.
Ding is blogging, in Chinese, about their adventure so their family and friends back home can keep up. “We have lots of stories to share with our followers to tell them what is going on in other countries. The normal family, what do they do?” she said. “Meeting car club friends has been the best part of our trip, we have been so surprised to see there are still quite a lot of Citroën fans in North America.”
After having lunch in the French café with their new Colorado friends, the family loaded back into their Citroën, buckling Yuding in her car seat. Luo said his daughter is coping very well with her new lifestyle. “She entertains herself in the car by drawing, singing, looking around, especially when we were in the north, in Alaska and northern Canada where there were many wild animals. That was a lot of fun.”
In a blink, they were off again, wide-eyed and heading down the highway in their bright red Citroën, adventure bound.