Paris, France
For my birthday this year, I decided to do something different. Well, I had planned on having a party but with so many company Christmas parties to compete with, I decided to scrap that idea. Instead, I headed for Paris to celebrate reaching a milestone with friends there.
I have been to Paris enough times that I skip all the usual tourist attractions but I do always walk the Champs-Elysees. Renault, Citroen and Peugeot have big storefronts here as do Mercedes-Benz and Toyota. Unfortunately, Citroen was in the process of remodeling and Renault (Formula One champions) was closed because of some technical problem.
Peugeot did have an interesting exhibit with concept cars that I think would be a kick to drive (although I did not care much for the mini-van). Toyota also had their concept car and one of their Formula One cars on display.
Formula One and rallying are big here and you see pictures of them everywhere you go. For that matter, if you keep walking down the Champs-Elyees toward to the Louvre, you will walk past FIA office on the left at Place de la Concorde. There are certain things I can always spot no matter where I go: I always recognize Italian women because of their big sunglasses and I can always spot the US embassy by all the security (by comparison, I walked by the Spanish embassy and they had one policeman who did not care what you took pictures off while the US Embassy had several buses full of gendarmes parked outside who would not allow tourist to take any pictures with the US embassy in the background). The US embassy is right by the FIA offices. No big signs or sports cars parked out in front of the FIA. Just a simple doorway with Fédération “Internationale de l’Automobile” written over the entrance. I was tempted to go in there but I was on a schedule and could not afford to be late. Still, I was curious as to what was inside.
Walking along the Champs-Elyees I was reminded of one of my favorite car videos: Rendezvous. This is a short movie shot in 1978 by film maker Claude Lelouch of a Ferrari 275GTB racing thru the streets of Paris at full speed. This video was done in one take with no special effects and without the benefit of street closures! The camera was strapped to the front of the car and you see and hear the Ferrari reaching speeds of up to 140mph as it races down the Champs-Elyees on its way to Sacre-Coeur. (Funny how my two favorite car chases take place in Paris: Ronin and The Borne Identity.)
A few weeks ago, I saw Nissan’s modern version of Rendezvous. Nissan’s The Run has a 350Z racing thru the streets of Prague and it has a very similar ending to the original Rendezvous. Nissan was more responsible by actually having the streets closed off for this filming and it used two cars and some special effects for the making of this video. Having been to Prague a couple of times, I can tell you that Nissan took some narrow roads that you would not expect to see cars go thru at high speed – very nice.
I enjoyed watching Nissan’s video and I liked how they played homage to Rendezvous but it did not get your adrenaline going like the original. Seeing the Ferrari drive on sidewalks, go the wrong way down a one way street and almost running people (and their pets) down really gets the adrenaline going. The Nissan video could have been much better if they got rid of the music (play the video without the music – the sound of the engine should be enough) and quit changing views so often.
At one point while driving thru the old part of Prague I noticed the 350Z passing the same Mozart sign hanging overhead multiple times. Could Nissan be also playing homage to Bullit with this?
(Be sure to also check out BMW’s The Hire. I would especially recommend Star. Look for them on YouTube.)
