They may have been overshadowed by the lakebed rescue Bugatti that headlined the auction, but the Bonhams Retromobile sale, appropriately for Paris, featured some prominent Sixties and Seventies Citroens. It followed last year’s auction with another spectacular price achieved for a DS Decapotable, too.

Most unusual was a one-off re-creation of the Chapron-built Citroen SM Presidentielle sold for €155,250 (£135,000). Two cars were originally completed in 1972 for French president Georges Pompidou, in preparation for a visit from Queen Elizabeth II. Both were four-door convertibles based on a stretched SM platform. Today they are in museums and no longer running.

This re-creation was built using original tooling, and even carries a Chapron build number. It was completed in 2008 at a total cost of more than €480,000 (£470,000), so the new owner netted something of a bargain.

The 1971 DS21 Decapotable had been fully restored in 2009 before achieving €189,000 (£165,000). That’s fully €39,000 (£34,000) above estimate, yet still rather less than the €337,500 (£330,000) achieved for a DS Decapotable at Bonhams’ 2009 Retromobile auction. That car, however, was one of only three DS23s converted by coachbuilder Henri Chapron (who built 389 DS Decapotables in total), whereas this is one of 1365 DS19s and 21s built by Citroen’s own factory. A commoner by comparison!

A 1966 DS21 saloon, restored by Swiss Citroen specialist Vincent Crescia’s Garage du Lac, sold for €48,300 (£42,000), while a 1967 ID19 that had been restored as a period-style historic rally car, reached €40,825 (£35,500).