''Top Gear France'' is a French television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars, derived from the British series of the same name. It was broadcast for the first time on 18 March 2015 on the

RMC Découverte RMC Découverte is a French television channel broadcast on channel 24 and owned by NextRadioTV. Created in 2012, it mainly broadcasts documentaries such as ''Wheeler Dealers'', ''Ancient Aliens'', Swamp Loggers. RMC Découverte broadcasts the F ...

channel. It is presented by actor

Philippe Lellouche Philippe Lellouche is a French actor, director, screenwriter, television presenter and singer. He was born on March 30, 1966 in Tel HaShomer in Israel. His brother is the actor Gilles Lellouche. Biography After studying journalism, Philippe Le ...

, the professional racing driver Bruce Jouanny and electronic music artist and journalist Yann Larret-Menezo (aka "Le Tone").

History

In March 2014, Jean-Louis Blot, the director of BBC France, announced that his company was working on a French adaptation of the show ''Top Gear''. On 28 August 2014,

announced at its autumn conference the production of a French version, which started broadcasting on 18 March 2015. Filming began at the end of 2014 and 27 January 2015 on the runways on the

Brienne-le-Château Brienne-le-Château () is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France. It is located from the right bank of the river Aube and 26 miles northeast of Troyes. History It was the centre of the medieval County of Brienne, whose lord ...

airfield, located near

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

Overview

200 candidates were suggested for the cast, including

Christophe Dechavanne Christophe Dechavanne (; born 23 January 1958), is a French television and radio host and program producer. Biography Dechavanne attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school. He started working as a radio host in the early 1980s. In 1985, he pr ...

Vincent Cerutti Vincent Cerutti (born 16 March 1981) is a French radio and television presenter. Radio career At the age of 14, he began his radio career by a training course with community radios. He followed on MFM Radio from 2001 to 2005, on Bel RTL for a ...

Stéphane De Groodt Stéphane De Groodt (born 3 March 1966) is a Belgian comedian, humorist and former racing driver. Life and career Early life and education Stéphane De Groodt is the son of an engineer at Texaco and a housewife who takes care of handicapped c ...

Vincent Perrot Vincent Perrot (born 3 August 1965, in Confolens) is a French journalist, radio and television presenter and drag racing driver. Biography Perrot's father was the Mayor of the town and died when Vincent was 11. His mother Marina decided to ...

, and

Stéphane Rotenberg Stéphane Rotenberg (born 21 September 1967) is a French journalist and television presenter. Background and early life Stéphane Rotenberg's grandparents are from Polish families who settled in the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin of Lens. ...

. On 7 November 2014 the trio of presenters were announced. They are the actor (and former journalist) Philippe Lellouche, professional driver Bruce Jouanny, and electronic music artist and journalist Yann Larret-Menezo, former editor of the magazine ''

Intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their i ...

''.

Luc Alphand Luc Alphand (born 6 August 1965) is a former FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, World Cup Alpine skiing, alpine ski racer from France. He specialized in the speed events and later became a auto racing, race car driver. Ski racing Born in Briançon (Ha ...

joins the team in 2021 as the fourth member.

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2

This second season of Top Gear France contains 8 episodes and three additional episodes.

Series 3

This third season of Top Gear France contains 8 episodes. The first episode was broadcast on December 21, 2016.

Later series

Broadcast

The first season consisted of 10 episodes, seven of which are completely new and three that include the highlights of that season. ''Top Gear'' episodes are broadcast on

on Wednesday evening at 20:45 for the first episode and 22:20 for the second. The first program broadcast at 20:45 on 18 March 2015 set an audience record for

, with 966,000 viewers and a 3.6% audience share.

Segments

Challenges

During this sequence, the presenters are given a limited budget to buy a car that meets specific criteria. In the first episode, they receive €1500 to buy the car of their childhood dreams (a

Renault Fuego The Renault Fuego (''Fire'' in Spanish) is a sport hatchback that was manufactured and marketed by Renault from 1980 to 1986, replacing the Renault 15 and 17 coupés of the 1970s. Marketed in the United States by American Motors Corporatio ...

, a

BMW 3 Series The BMW 3 Series is a line of compact executive cars manufactured by the German automaker BMW since May 1975. It is the successor to the 02 Series and has been produced in seven generations. The first generation of the 3 Series was only avail ...

, and a Talbot Matra Rancho). In the third episode, Le Tone and Bruce Jouanny play football with French and German vehicles in a rematch of the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

quarterfinal between

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Top Gear France Top Gear France French-language television shows French television series based on British television series 2015 French television series debuts