Home » Featured » Travels » Currently Reading:

Cars of Paris

May 29, 2009 Featured, Travels No Comments
post thumbnail

French cars; some say they’re ugly, some say they’re beautiful, all agree that they’re unreliable. However, there is something about them that makes you want to look. These pictures were taken in March of 2007, my wife’s and mine last trip before the birth of our daughter. Selected for your viewing pleasure are not only pictures of cars in Paris, but also the environment in which they’re in.

                               There are no highways going through Paris itself, only around it. What you see in Paris are just old city streets and no highway ramps or overpasses. Because of Paris’ awesome metro system and its connection to airports and train stations, there is very little need for people to drive into town for the purposes of commuting. Unlike the United States, European cities are much more densely populated, with majority of people living in the cities as opposed to the suburbs which further reduces the problem of out-of-town commuters.

That being said, many Parisians still seem to own cars and parking is definitely a problem. Generally cars are much smaller than in the U.S. (d’uh), and there is plenty of street parking available with no-nonsense rules. Scooters and motorcycles are also very popular.

                               Much like in the rest of Europe, most new cars tend to be small displacement turbo-diesels, however there are a few unique French gems to be found. American cars are few and far between, but I did see a guy driving a Mustang GT while wearing a baseball hat! Other cars such as Minis, old and new, were plentiful. Smart cars are all over the place, the 3-cylinder diesel versions which actually make sense.

I always like to see base versions of BMWs and MBs only because they’re such a novelty to me; no sunroof, manual cloth seats, no cup-holders, etc. Delivery vans and similar vehicles are essentially FWD cars chopped after the front doors a big box attached, sort of like the Ford Transit Connect which is soon to be offered in the US.

About the cars seen in these photos:

  • The most stunning one is the mid-engined Renault Alpine. See here for more details.
  • Older French-market BMWs had orange headlights/ Why? I don’t know. Typically orange lights cut better through fog, which is why proper fog-lights illuminate in orange, but I’m really not sure if that’s the reason .
  • Citroen DS – you’ve seen them before and they are quite the marvel of engineering for their time.What happened to the car industry? How come only risks being taken are the design ones, and not engineering ones? Boo. Learn here more.

Enjoy the pics…

Bookmark and Share

Comment on this Article:







AutoAnything

Auto Parts

Improve your Driving Experience with Performance Auto Parts!

Car DVD players Air filter Headers
Cold air intakes Car wax Mufflers

Have more Fun with Car Accessories!

Ipod car adapter Sun shade Wood dash kit

FEATURED

Rally Racing, part 1: Building the Car

February 8, 2010

Rally Racing, part 1: Building the Car

This is the first of three articles on Rally Racing. I intend to cover car set-ups, driver training, different classes, and whatever else I may come upon. This part will show a built of an Open Class rally car, which is essentially a race car based on a production car, but with the least restrictions [...]

Project ET-001: BMW M62 4.4L V8 Engine

August 17, 2009

Project ET-001: BMW M62 4.4L V8 Engine

I still remember the day I saw the first one. It was a nice early spring day in 1997 and I was in walking around near Battery Park in downtown Manhattan. There in the corner of my eye I saw it; jet black, on its three-piece wheels which came only on the models with six-speed [...]

Driving Jaguar’s new XFR, on the Road and on the Track

July 1, 2009

Driving Jaguar’s new XFR, on the Road and on the Track

I have recently had the opportunity to drive the new Jaguar XFR on the road and on a race track. With the XFR competing directly against the BMW M5, which I have also had the opportunity to drive on the track and on the street, it only made sense to evaluate the XFR while using [...]

Experiencing The New Diesel-Powered BMWs.

June 9, 2009

Experiencing The New Diesel-Powered BMWs.

While you may have already read a thing or two about BMW’s new compression ignition offerings, you may not have heard all the details, and you may have some questions. I sure did, and I did my best to answer them here. Get coffee, go read, see huge gallery.
Cars:
2009 BMW X5 xDrive35d, from here on [...]

Cars of Paris

May 29, 2009

Cars of Paris

French cars; some say they’re ugly, some say they’re beautiful, all agree that they’re unreliable. However, there is something about them that makes you want to look. These pictures were taken in March of 2007, my wife’s and mine last trip before the birth of our daughter. Selected for your viewing pleasure are not only [...]