for some reason the sighting of this lone ferrari 328 in paris reminds me of the masterful paul bowles prose le bapteme de la solitude. having purchased a vintage ferrari within the last year, i can almost equate the following passage with the experience of purchasing, owning and driving a ferrari… stupid, i know. there is something broken about a man who decides to buy a ferrari… a self destructive and nihilistic act… here it goes: “It is a unique sensation and has nothing to do with loneliness, for loneliness presupposes memory. Here, in this wholly mineral landscape lighted by stars like flares, even memory disappears; nothing is left but your own breathing and the sound of your heart beating. A strange, and by no means pleasant, process of reintegration begins inside you, and you have the choice of fighting against it, and insisting on remaining the person you have always been, or letting it take its course. For no one who has stayed in the Sahara for awhile is quite the same as when he came. Perhaps the logical question to ask at this point is : Why Go? The answer is that when a man has been there and undergone the baptism of solitude he can’t help himself. Once he has been under the spell of the vast, luminous, silent country, no other place is quite strong enough for him, no other surroundings can provide the supremely satisfying sensation of existing in the midst of something that is absolute. He will go back, whatever the cost in comfort and money, for the absolute has no price.”

this jaguar was spotted zipping around the Arc de Triomphe in paris france, which was a spectacular sight to behold….. it is amazing there wasn’t more accidents as the cars zip about seemingly willy-nilly with no lanes nor ryhme-reason. the series III jaguar xj6 is a very nifty car, i once owned a 1987 and from a design perspective it was uncanny inside and out. i shudder to think that many of these cars received chevy V8’s at the hands of misguided ugly americans thinking they were improving them.

fun fact: did you know that you can buy a brand new peugeot in mexico, but you cannot buy one in the good ol’ USofA ?? i don’t know about you but that seems awfully queer. do the french regard mexico as a more sophisticated market ? or are they just getting back at us for the whole “Freedom Fries” debacle? i also notice that canada is getting the silent treatment from peugeot as well, though french is an official language of canada….. why, you can’t even buy a bag of crisps up yonder without french on the wrapper. do the french hate hockey, cheese and the word ‘eh?’ so much they decided to deprive canadians the privilege of driving a peugeot ? what gives ? i want my peugeot’s, citroen’s, alfa romeo’s, lancia, fiat’s and all other manner of european car. it would be a welcome sight to get some hyundais, toyotas, kias and hondas off the roads in favor of some nice esoteric french and italian cars for a change.

this fittingly french automated street sweeper was spied crawling across the square skillfully piloted by mr. green-jeans. this contraption must have been designed by a designer who read lots of dr. seuss books as a child and took them to heart.

in paris the police cars definitely are not trying to be macho or intimidating… indeed much like the famed “pink panther” inspector clouseau, the police cars in paris have a comical and bungling air. combine this with the french sirens (usually only heard to american ears in movies) the aesthetics of policing in france are more sophisticated, authentic and mis-shapen… which i actually prefer and will happily take any day over a good old-fashioned american tazing!

the aston martin db5 is the most famous aston martin car due to its use by James Bond in Goldfinger (1964). although ian fleming had placed Bond in a db mark III in the novel, the db5 was the company’s newest model when the film was being made. the car used in the film was the original db5 prototype, with another standard car used for stunts. two more modified cars were built for publicity tours after the film’s release. in january 2006, one of those cars was auctioned in arizona for $2,090,000. the same car was originally bought in 1970 for £5,000 from the owner, sir anthony bamford, by a tennessee museum owner. the other car is located in the netherlands in the louwman collection museum, and this car was mainly used for promoting the movie.

i discovered paris was stocked with a pretty amazing variety of fine classic automobiles prowling the rues….. it seems the french value keeping older classic cars on the road. the xj6 has always been a favorite from a design perspective. the exterior design is quite accomplished whilst the interior has an old-school high-society lounge quality with a genuine wood dashboard, high quality leather seating, air-craft style gauges and a satisfying number of secret agent style buttons to push.

this voracious street-cleanin’ caterpillar was spied prowling the streets of paris france. its mandibles are fierce and rumored to be loaded with Perrier. these creatures secrete a hypnotic substance reducing their human operators to mere tranquilized slaves who live only to serve the caterpillar’s needs…… the operator in this photo appears to have fallen victim as witnessed by the tell-tale vacant and obedient stare.

The Citroën 2CV (deux chevaux vapeur, “two steam horses”) was an economy car produced from 1949 to 1990. It was technologically advanced and innovative, but with extremely utilitarian and deceptively simple Bauhaus inspired bodywork that belied the sheer quality of its underlying engineering. the most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car.

even though these cars are now attainable for $12-$24k, every time i see one i think the occupant must be some sort of secret society elite, or fabulous entertainer a’la liberace. i should buy one just to fuck with everyone’s minds… infact i know where a pristine and tempting one is right now, just waiting to be bought …… hhmmmmm.

heading to the Charles de Gaulle Airport, this elusive lamborghini gallardo crept behind the taxi and was captured along with the peculiar looking vespa that oft-times attaches itself like a remora to larger, faster cars ands feeds off their exhaust. just goes to show that you never really know what you are going to pull up in the net; a parasetic vespa, the majestic lamborghini fish……. or both!

this ’smart car’ was running the gauntlet at the Arc de Triomphe at such a rapid clip it began to morph into molten metal. in europe, most cars are turbo-diesels and this smart was no exception. think of the ‘green-ness’ and then consider we cannot buy a diesel smart in the united states.

i spied this one whizzing around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris about dusk on a pleasant spring eve. watching the vehicular traffic racing around the arc is a spectacle to behold, as chaotic as bumper-cars at the county fair, but miraculously with nary a crash.

citroën’s have a rich heritage of uniquely esoteric french design. always futuristic in ways only the french can manage…… designed and engineered in ways that seem positively alien. even the current citroen’s convey a certain sublime outre’ character that could be infused only in france. wouldn’t it be nice if us ugly americans could buy new citroens state-side ???