A friend of mine sent me this "tour through Paris"

[BillWilliams]

On this day, Monday, June 1, 2009 a friend of mine sent me this film clip. In my mind this is the finest film clip ever made...and that's saying an awful lot. I first saw this at a BMW Club meeting back when I was the Chairman of the BMW Club for the State of Ohio. It was shown at a meeting of Ohio Area Governors held in Columbus. At that time it was actually available as a film short from the Cincinnati Public Library as I had been asked to pick it up and bring it to the meeting, which I did. The film clip has long ago gone to that film clip graveyard in the sky, however, it does still exist at the Cincinnati Public Library as a DVD, I believe. Back to the first showing that I saw; it was riveting. I recall playing it several times and it being every bit as fascinating on play three as on the first. For several years I brought the clip to every BMW Club Christmas Party and it would be played over and over again for a couple of hours. If you are now or ever were a proponent of fast driving, especially under less than ideal conditions, you should watch this. I am fully aware that this is crazy and that the driver is certifiably insane but for 9 gloriously wackko minutes I am behind the wheel of his Ferrari 275GTB and doing insane things. It's a mental freedom "thang" and I love it.

The film clip had sort of disappeared from my memory after 20 years or so until voila it reappeared in my emails today! Many thanks to old friend Tom Dreyer for thinking of me and Rondezvous. For a little background on the vehicle, which does not appear in the film, here is a short description that I lifted from Wikipedia:

The Ferrari 275 was a 2-seat front-engined Gran Turismo automobile produced by Ferrari between 1964 and 1968. It used a 3.3 L (3286 cc) Colombo 60° V12

engine and produced 280-300 hp. The Pininfarina-designed body was a graceful evolution of the car's predecessor, the 250, and strongly contrasted with its

replacement, the Daytona. The 275 introduced Ferrari's "transaxle" concept, where the transmission and rear axle are integrated.

Motor Trend Classic named the 275 GTB/GTS as number three in their list of the ten "Greatest Ferraris of all time".

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris early in the morning . The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur. No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.

The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets.

Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested. He has never revealed the identity of the driver, and the film went underground. If you haven't seen this before it is a classic. If you have seen it before, enjoy it again, it's still a clasic........Turn on your sound and enjoy..............

Trying to get the URL to attach

Rendezvous in Paris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqHrCLt3Geo

[jgmgti]

Bill,

I have had this tape for years and it is the best.Story goes,the driver was never revealed and the maker was alegedly arrested.

There is a lot of folklore re:this footage.

What a film what a drive!

Jonathan

[norm]

I like this "tour of Paris" too!!!

http://www.break.com/index/sexy-french-girl-music-video.html

Norm

[doug73cs]

Add these to your list of favourites. Especially Star - very ironic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zCrpzpV2e0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf8lnYCZYEs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKJyehKtQZQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQaRtgTOa0I&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vY0TgU9uiQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZN6vhiYnZA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80cPxtj00T8&feature=related

[deschodt]

Ah, the famous Lelouche Rendez vous...

It was actually shot in a mercedes, and the sound dubbed...

Still pretty insane though ! He did it because he had film left over from one of his movies !

[Guest Anonymous]

The film clip has long ago gone to that film clip graveyard in the sky, however, it does still exist at the Cincinnati Public Library as a DVD, I believe.

The film clip had sort of disappeared from my memory after 20 years or so until voila it reappeared in my emails today! Many thanks to old friend Tom Dreyer for thinking of me and Rondezvous.

If you have seen it before, enjoy it again, it's still a clasic........Turn on your sound and enjoy..............

This film seems to get rediscovered every few weeks or months. The Library staff ought to spend more time on this board.

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,57/page,viewtopic/t,322610/

[dubois]

wow, he blew past several red lights! Covered all the mayor sights in 9 minutes! Paris, what a beautiful city!

I like the scene where he is entering the Arc de Triomphe. Reminds me of driving our brand new 530 in 2002, and fearing trying to merge with the traffic in there, but to my surprise it was rather easily, as people driving in the circle basically slowed down to let us in. I thought: "wow, how polite French drivers are". I kept driving around, half around the circle, then all of sudden all the cars stopped, like an idiot I kept going, and to my right, a horde of cars coming in at 50mph from one of the spokes, is in direct collision course with our brand new 530! It was a close call, I was cussed in French several times!

Later I found out that is one of the - perhaps the only - roundabout where the rules of traffic are reversed.

[ingraham]

(nt)

[Otis]

What a film what a drive!

Jonathan

Pay attention to the road, you hippie. We don't want you wrecking Paul's car.

[wegweiser]

Welcome back Otis!

paul wegweiser