Little Electric Cars

Below our window is a row of special parking places for "Autolib" cars, which are little electric cars which anyone can hire.  You have to join up on a website, then you can book a car online and book a car parking space to return it to, anywhere in the city.  When you park you plug the car into a special charging pillar on the footpath.  They are quite cheap to hire, and there are now several thousand of them in Paris.

Autolib electric cars

The cars are all tracked continuously by GPS so the location of every car is known.  The bodywork is plain aluminium so it's cheap to repair dings and scrapes.

Sue snapped this photo out our window in the middle of the night, when she noticed a team of men cleaning and checking the cars parked below us.

There are many tiny cars in Paris, and thousands of motor scooters from simple Vespas up to 650 cc luxury models.  The little cars must be easy to drive in the narrow streets, and can park anywhere.  We say one yesterday parked at right-angles to the kerb like a motor bike.

Smart Car

Tiny Toyota

Rainproof scooter

3-wheel scooter

Typical parking spot