Recently Paris celebrated “journée sans voiture” or “day without cars”.  From 11am to 6pm all the roads across a large swath throughout the central part of the city (Arr 1,2,3 and 4) plus portions of the major roads in the area of the Louvre, along the Seine and on the Champs Elysées were closed to vehicles other than buses, taxis and emergency vehicles.  The result? A spectacular day of wandering, rowing, riding and roller blading by thousands!  Mother nature provided sunshine and warm temperatures.  A spectacular day and a brilliant idea.

Motivation for this day-long event came from the European Mobility Week as well as the upcoming conference on climate and climate change which Paris is hosting later in the year.  All in all it was a great event and I can’t wait until it comes along next year!

Following are a few photos from the day although, in all honesty, I was more interested in participating then in photographing all the activities that actually began at dawn with hundreds (yes, hundreds) of boats rowing up the Seine River.  I’d gone out simply to take pictures in the morning light and was aghast at the number of boats on the river. Fabulous!