You might expect that we'd find the distant relatives of Bob's car in the UK, but Old Grand Pere actually turned up on the streets of Paris. Above you see, found at long last, the grandfather of Bob's Mini. Even the paint job is the same.
Other Car-Related Paris Observations (including links to photos)
- Citroën makes a mini-van called Picasso which is even signed by the artist. Hysterical.
- Smart cars are cool. And small. Here's a photo of one next to a classic VW Beetle for scale.
- When I was last in Paris (1985), the streets were filled with the wonderful Fiat 500; I loved this car and wanted one. I only saw one of them this time. That car, of course, has been immortalized as the character Luigi in the movie Cars. When I checked to make sure that this was true, I learned that Tony Shaloub (the guy who plays Monk) did the voice. Perfect.
- BMW makes a full-cage scooter called The Executive. Um, okay.... Paris is the city of scooters.
- This vintage Excalibur, waiting for a wedding party, warranted a photo.
- Many other cool vehicles went unphotographed, including many Europe-only VW products.
- This was the coolest vehicle I spotted in Paris; this photo was taken at an indoor mall. Incredibly dignified.
- Paris has made mass-rental of bicycles work. Here's proof. Here's more. These bikes are rented and ridden all over Paris, mostly by French speaking people. How cool is that?
Stockholm is the city of bicycles; Paris is the city of motor scooters. But here's their plan to change that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velib
