Car-Free Day in Paris again today, Sunday September 25th

And today was really bad with the disruptions from the Techno Parade - took me forever to get home to the 11th from a trip to the 14th. At least I wasn't in a hurry.

oh gosh the year I got married I rented an apartment for my parents and brother and his family to stay in . . .right on the route of the Techno Parade!!! ughhhhhhh, there was NO RESTING!!!

What's the Techno Parade?

Extremely loud techno music played on "chars" (platform trucks with people dressed up, dancing, DJs...). Loads of "impaired" young people on the streets, lots of broken glass, vomit...
My windows almost blew out this year.

for HOURS . . .

sounds like JUST like what I'd really LOVE.

ummm. not.

Beautiful day after the rains subsided-
Car Free day was amazing.....no cars in Paris!! (with the exception of taxis, buses, emergency vehicles). LOTS of people out biking, walking… Really a fun day!!!

The Velib bike system is fun, but a CHALLENGE! Sometimes the station machines do not work....one of our passes stopped working.

Techno day was disgusting.....loud/obnoxious NOISE!!!! Not lovely Paris!

We were there last year in Sept on car free day. The memory that sticks with me - some guy trying to 'land-sail' down the street near the Pont Alexander...yes, a guy on a skateboard with a sail a la windsurfing...interesting!

The car free day was nice for walking but as we had paid for a full day of riding the Hop On / Hop Off buses for this day without being told of this "car free day" we were quite upset when the bus all of sudden oddly slowed to 10 KPH drove in circles for 30 minutes while the driver was on his phone and then stopped the bus not at a normal stop and told everyone busses where done for the day and everyone had to get out.
This was at around 11:30 AM and the service did not run the rest of the day.
Many paying customers were quite upset, we had bought a combo Batobus Boat ticket with the L'Open Tour Bus so just switched to the boat that day.
There were definitely less cars all day but still a steady stream of them on most major roads so not really car free by any means.
Many cars in addition to the taxis and city buses had permits/exceptions apparently.

Also was inconvenienced by the Techno Parade in addition to noise so loud it was echoing everywhere as we were taking a taxi back to our place and police would not let the driver through so we had to walk most of the way instead.

All in all really not a big deal or inconvenience, it did not affect our overall impression of the city but it seems communication about these planned events and shut downs is quite lacking to the service operators.

Hi Kim, thanks so much for the info on "car-free" day. We were in Paris this week and couldn't believe the crazy traffic. I can't imagine ever wanting to drive in the city!

We walked from Notre Dame to our hotel across from Napoleon's Tomb on Saturday night and it was particularly busy and crowded. Sunday was such a pleasure. Love Paris :)

Frankly, I don't understand the whole point of this "car-free day in Paris".
It's nice to walk around without too much traffic and noise, but this is an inconvenience for a great many people - and as the post above proved, the rules are not at all clear.

On another note - it's possible that ParisPlage will not have any sand at all next year. Stay tuned...

In my opinion (and I have no actual information to back this up), the "car-free day"s are efforts from Paris city leadership to get good P.R. for the city for being green. A few press outlets pick up pictures of pedestrians walking down the middle of the Champs-Elysées with no cars around, and mention how "green" Paris is, and the city basks in the reflected glory.

That is I guess a pretty cynical view, but it keeps recurring to me. Just a way to draw some notice.