Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Pedal to the Metal! Traveling in Claude Lelouch's Ferrari


Are you buckled up? I hope so. Let's go on a fabulous ride together. Turn your speakers on and prepare to zoom through Paris with French director Claude Lelouch. I am crazy about this little film, C'était un Rendezvous. It's been paired by someone with a song from one of my favorite bands, Snow Patrol. So you don't get the vroom vroom sound of the engine from the original film, but it's a tradeoff I'm willing to make. I think the song suits the video very well.

I remember the excitement of visiting Paris for the first time a few years ago. Amazing place. Maybe it's why I could so easily relate to April's yearnings in Rendezvous Road. I REALLY want to go back.

Meanwhile, I'll watch this marvelous eight minute's worth of Paris when I need a fix. The first time I saw it, I had to remember to keep breathing.

Click the photo to be taken to the youtube video:


Take a minute to check out the links at the Wikipedia site. There's some cool stuff there, including the route superimposed on a google earth type map image. Which in turn has a link to this site, which attempts to calculate the speeds the driver hit. The most incredible part of it all to me is that he supposedly didn't use special effects. According to Lelouch, this is REAL.

Um....don't try this with your own vehicle, okay? Safety first.

4 comments:

Barry said...

I was a pedestrian during my stay in Paris and, as I recall, ALL drivers exceed any rational posted speed limit to the extent they all also disobey the law of gravity.

I'm not sure they all had such beautiful women waiting for them though.

Terrific film!

lisahgolden said...

I'm whimpering with desire. I want to go back to France in the worst way.

I wonder if I built up enough speed - got a good running start, could I jump the Atlantic in the little Toyota Corolla?

And would I need a passport? Hmmmmm.

Fantastic Forrest said...

Barry - We drove into a neighborhood just down the hill from Sacre Coeur (where the car in the film finally stops) and parked our BMW for the duration of our stay. Walked and took public transportation the entire time. I didn't notice bad drivers, but I couldn't have imagined driving because I was too busy looking at everything. I would have had a dozen accidents in the first hour if I'd driven.

Lisa - oh, yeah. Me too, pal. I think the Corolla is too small. Maybe a Camry... And yes, you need a passport. Get one now. Then when Prof. X and I move to our rental gite you can come visit.

Bee said...

Thoughts on the importance of place are brewing. Maybe someday we can organize a bloggers' trip from London to Paris -- on the new high-speed train.