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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Paris at Warp Speed


There's something I love about having friends in town. It always brings me alive and somehow their presence in the city leads to things in my life falling into place. With Michelle, Anne and Paul in town, it wasn't until they came over to my apartment – or should I say shoebox – for a little apèro that I truly learned how they were able to conquer Paris (all while having a Leonardo DiCaprio sighting and happening upon a Karl Lagerfeld Coke commercial being shot in the Pompidou). In going through their pictures (and that was merely day 7 of 10) I was a bit in awe by the sheer amount of things they have accomplished in this city in such little time (perhaps the curse of the beautifully above-average temperatures we've had lately that make you walk forever). In any case, Paul had the great idea to pull up this 1976 video shot from the dashboard of a Ferrari 275 GTB – with a professional racer at the helm – speeding through the streets (and red lights) of early morning Paris. While I nearly had an anxiety attack from watching the video, the cool thing about it was putting together the various places they had walked and visited, albeit it at warp speed. Buckle your seatbelts, and watch it full screen!

13 comments:

  1. Very cool to see all of the famous sites whipping by at death defying speeds!

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  2. I'm especially jealous you spotted Leo.... he's my one and only!

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  3. For real, I totally missed both sightings! :(

    A

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  4. LOVE it. And I totally know that feeling of Visiting Friend Serendipity. It's a real and true thing.

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  5. I agree with travelkate, Brings back memories, and the driver really knew the streets! Makes you nervous on some corners, passing red lights with no new game or restart button.

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  6. High compliments coming from a travel maven! Funny how we seemed to stumble upon every high profile commercial filming in town.

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  7. Yikes, this so reminded me of our wild early Sunday
    morning taxi ride into Paris from the airport--felt like he was going 70 at least. Guess that is why I prefer the RER these days!

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  8. That guy was haulin' ass! OMG! That was insane. Literally. Thanks for the high speed, anxiety provoking, but seriously thrilling ride!

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  9. Flavia and I once took a taxi out to the airport in Rome. It was like 5 am or something, I could have sworn we broke the sound barrier, I remember thinking I was not going to make it, but I don't think we ran any red lights.
    T

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  10. This short film is one of my favorites. While it was overdubbed with the sound of a 275 GTB, but in fact was actually done with a Mercedes-Benz 450SEL. Lelouch himeself (the director) did the driving, and was supposedly arrested after screening it ...

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Wow, this is really really cool!

    windeater.blogspot.com

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Happy Travels!

-Anne