I lived in Paris for about 4 years, from 1997 to 2001, with a few gaps here and there. Driving there was always an experience – the first time I ventured on to the roundabout at Place D’Etoile forever sticks in my memory; it’s one of the roundabouts where traffic coming on has right of way.
This video, all 8 mins and 39 seconds of it, puts my driving experience in Paris to shame. The sound track is that of a Ferrari or maybe a Lambourghini; the visuals are a bumper level view of Paris – the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, Sacre Coeur, a few pidgeons scattering, one or too shocked pedestrians and a couple of near misses. My favourite moment? The driver turns left into the Louvre (the pyramid on the right) and the engine noise reverberates off the archway. That and shooting more than a dozen sets of red lights – the only time I did that in Paris was when I ran the marathon and I wasn’t going quite so fast.
Watch it with the sound up loud.
All tours of Paris should be this much fun.
It\’s a splendid video. A while ago, I tracked down some links to nice Google mashing up and speed analysis (disappointingly slow, actually). Follow the link and comments from there.
That\’s a lot of comments. couldn\’t get the googlemaps link to work, but the jpeg shows up fine. thanks for that.