AETNA BLUE

Aetna Blue

Spending a morning in Paris with Gabi Aubry and his Porsche 356B.

A happy accident while we were shooting the Type 7 Guide to Paris was running into Gabi Aubry, crossing the city on his way to his next job from his production studio in East Paris. We were set to meet in his favourite café in the Halles neighbourhood — incidentally called Motors Coffee although the place had originally no purpose in becoming a meeting hub for petrolheads. Both the Halles and Bastille areas, where Gabriel and his partners built their studio a few years ago, can be counted among Paris’ most lively neighbourhoods, both filled with simultaneously chaotic and endearing street scenes — a perfect embodiment of what the city really is.

Far away from the quainter Rive Gauche or the tourist-heavy 1st arrondissement, this is where actual shopkeepers, craftworkers or entrepreneurs go to hang and connect with each other, and Gabi seems a rather convincing embodiment of this.

You can hear his Aetna Blue 356B arrive even before you see it. We enjoyed a bit of a pause with some great speciality coffee, and then a drive towards Place des Victoires, a neoclassical urban landmark in the 2nd arrondissement and a welcome sight in this blue sixties spaceship. Gabi points us to a few of his favourite neighbourhood haunts, including a typical bistrot welcoming the first alfresco lunches of the season, or the Palais Royal gardens with its flawless trees, fountains and ornate facades.

Gabi’s car is packed with professional camera gear, evidence of his latest career shift into production. At 27 years old, he already has a 10-year long career as a professional racing driver behind him and currently drives his 356B all over Paris, with a trusty Marshall speaker and racing helmet fitted in the back. He often takes the time to talk with enchanted passers-by about this showstopper of a car. For him, it is more about the feeling and experience of the drive than the exact stats, and when asking about the real colour code or the exact year of production, two different people might even receive two different answers.

Both the Halles and Bastille areas, where Gabriel and his partners built their studio a few years ago, can be counted among Paris’ most lively neighbourhoods, both filled with simultaneously chaotic and endearing street scenes.

Gabi’s car is packed with professional camera gear, evidence of his latest career shift into production. At 27 years old, he already has a 10-year long career as a professional racing driver behind him and currently drives his 356B all over Paris.

Never short of an idea or a project, Gabriel uses cars, design and art as channels to drive new conversations around culture, travel and history. As a real design aficionado, he is working on filling his new Paris apartment with collectibles but also objects or furniture he tracks by instinct, in a similar way he hunts his cars. His 356 was purchased from a Swiss architect with whom he’s since built a lasting friendship around their abundant shared interests. A Parisian at heart and by birth, he recently resettled in the capital after a few hectic years spent at the track. He’s still restless however, leaving us only the next day for sunny Rio de Janeiro.