Motor Cities: Paris

The City of Light and the City of Love. The City of Culture, of Couture and of Cuisine. Paris is all this, and more.

Hemingway called it a ‘moveable feast’. Dickens, Van Gogh and T.S. Eliot also found Paris deeply inspiring, while Mark Twain complained that the locals didn’t understand him when he spoke French.

The City of Light was also once the City of Cars, although today’s anti-motoring mayor would baulk at such a label. She is closing swathes of the city to private cars and wants to make the city mostly car-free. Cycleways are installed, car parks closed.