Parking - Un Sport de Payee

Anyone visiting Paris will be amazed by the skill and expertise with which residents park in this city. There's no space too small or inaccessible for the determined. Parking is a creative activity where the sport seems to be in how many vehicles can fit on any given street. Here there seems to be pride in squeezing a car into a spot that requires 'kissing' the bumpers of the car in front or in back of you. Drivers sometimes require several minutes to maneuver into position holding up traffic on the narrow streets. It's surprising how patient people are, perhaps they identify with those parking! For anyone spotting a space, it's not unthinkable to witness them drive diagonally through traffic to secure the coveted spot! Pedestrians beware! It's no wonder that many sidewalks are lined with stanchions or poles to avoid assertive drivers pulling right up onto the sidewalks. Mind you, this doesn't seem to inhibit those with scooters or motorbikes. It is not uncommon to have to scramble to get out of the way of someone on a scooter on the sidewalk! Please look at the picture at the right. The flower pots are at the edge of the sidewalk. The yellow truck is driving in the road. The cars are parked on the sidewalk. The scooter is driving on the sidewalk. The woman with the baby carriage is trying to not get hit.

Believe it or not, they have traffic police in Paris who are supposed to give tickets for illegal parking. But we can not figure out when they ticket and why. We think these may be the same guys that issue tickets to those who fail to stoop and scoop! We have seen a car booted but we expect this is for extreme cases where a car has been left for a very long time blocking the road.