Louis Ame, Musée / Museum "Truck stop America"

photo by Paskal Larsen (2006) as on webzine Foutraque

not available anymore

 

Driving the coastal road from St Malo to St Michel in Brittany, France, one will traverse the small coastal community of Hirel. It happened to be a good idea to pause there a while and visit the Truck Stop America, but this art environment doesn't exist anymore.

Life and works

The Truck Stop America was a museum/art environment created by Louis Ame (1927-2020), also known as Moustache.

Louis Ame portrayed in 2016

this picture and the next one

courtesy of Sylvie Perrot-Clemot

Retired for many years, Ame was a bus driver who mainly worked in Paris.

Maybe also because of this job behind the wheel, he developed a great passion for all types of vehicles driving on the road, especially those typical american ones, those big trucks and buses.

So once settled in Hirel he began to express this passion. From old tins, pieces of aluminium and other scrap material he constructed small scale replicas of these trucks and in the same way, re-using all kind of materials, he also assembled planes, ships and cars.

 studio of Louis Ame

Since spring 1993 all his creations could be seen in his own small museum, located off the coastal road of Hirel, along the Baie du Mont Saint Michel.

Louis Ame passed away in October 2020.

In August 2023 a reader of this blog reported that the building with Louis Ame's museum had been removed and had been replaced by a fenced lawn. Is is not clear what happened with the items that filled the museum.

Documentation
* Article and series of pictures (June 2012) on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit

* Article (in English, October 2012) by Marisa Martin on WND Diversions

* Article paying tribute to Louis Ame on the website of Les Rochers de Rothéneuf

Video

* Video by Jo Pinto Maya (YouTube, May 2011, 4'27")

first published November 2008, last revised June 2024

Louis Ame

Museum "Truck Stop America"

36 rue Quesmiere
35120 Hirel, dept Ille-et-Vilaine, region Brittany, France
site doesn't exist anymore