Rétro Passion Rennes: one hundred years of the Tour Eiffel Citroën
On 5–6 April 2025 in Rennes, the grandchildren of Fernand Jacopozzi and André Citroën gathered to celebrate the centenary of the Eiffel Tower illuminations — surrounded by enthusiasts passionate about the Citroën story.
5–6 April 2025. To mark the centenary of the Eiffel Tower illuminations created by Fernand Jacopozzi and financed by André Citroën, their grandchildren reunite at Rétro Passion Rennes to honour their grandparents.
A gathering of families
Present for this tribute:
- Philippe Citroën, grandson of André Citroën
- Véronique Tessier Huort Jacopozzi, granddaughter of Fernand Jacopozzi
- André de Saint Sauveur, grandson
The centenary
On 4 July 1925 at four o’clock in the morning, from a bateau-mouche on the Seine, Fernand Jacopozzi switches on the Eiffel Tower for the first time. Two hundred and fifty thousand bulbs in six colours, fifty-seven kilometres of wire, ten animations cycling every forty seconds — and those comets shooting downward to spell out the name CITROËN, visible forty kilometres away.
A hundred years later, the Rennes event brings together Citroën enthusiasts and the descendants of the two men who made it possible: a visionary industrialist and a Florentine engineer.
A mad project. A night that changed Paris. And a light that Lindbergh glimpsed from the Atlantic.