English translation:

Villa d’Este, Pebble Beach and Amelia Island rank among the great concours events of today. But where did the tradition begin? That is the question explored by a team of automotive historians, who trace the story from the earliest competitions for motor carriages, through flower parades and the first official Concours d’Élégance at Dinard in 1921, right up to the present day.

The distinctly French form of the concours reached its apogee in the 1930s, when automobile manufacturers, coachbuilders and the world of haute couture—including names such as Nina Ricci—formed a mutually beneficial alliance. Period photographs frequently show elegant women dressed in the latest fashions posing alongside equally fashionable automobiles, often accompanied by a four-legged companion. Before long, almost every sophisticated seaside resort, from La Baule and Biarritz to the Côte d’Azur, wanted a concours of its own.

The idea soon spread across the English Channel and into neighboring European countries. We learn, for example, that Italy’s first concours was held not at Villa d’Este, which began in 1929, but in Turin in 1923. Austria, Switzerland and even Romania also followed the French example. German events such as Baden-Baden and Wiesbaden, however, are omitted from a work that otherwise strives for considerable completeness.

From the 1950s onward, the decline of the French luxury automobile industry and the disappearance of many traditional coachbuilders brought this aristocratic world of elegance and exclusivity to an end. Yet the concours tradition found new life in the United States, most notably with Pebble Beach from 1950, and in time the format was revived in Europe as well.

By then, however, the emphasis had changed. Instead of new automobiles, historic and collectible cars took center stage. Judging was no longer concerned solely with elegance, but increasingly with condition, provenance and originality.

The book gives detailed attention to American events such as Pebble Beach, Amelia Island and Greenwich—among more than 100 concours now held annually in the United States—as well as to selected European events, with Villa d’Este receiving a chapter of its own. Schwetzingen, Tegernsee and Schloss Dyck, regrettably, receive only passing mention.

The final sections examine contemporary judging systems, scoring criteria and the changing standards by which concours cars are assessed. They also show how events such as Chantilly Arts & Elegance and Dinard have revived something of the original concours à la française, with occupants dressed by fashion houses presenting their cars in the spirit of the great French events of the interwar years.

VSCC Bulletin, Autumn 2026, issue 333