This week’s friday foto finder theme is “street.” This is a tough one for me in that I have taken many, many photos of streets over the years. After selecting a half-dozen or so of my various favorites that I had taken over the year, I instead chose this set of three photos that I had forgotten about. These were from our 2007 trip to Paris. Here is a scene that caught my attention while wondering some of the older streets of Paris, on the Ile de la Cité:
It just didn’t look like this car could possibly fit into this narrow street.
And in fact, here is about when the cars tires got jammed between the curbs, complete with much noise of squeaking rubber and revving engine.
Amazingly (to me, at least), the car did make it around that corner and down and out the street.
If you look closely, you can see from the street signs that this was Rue des Ursins. If you find it on Google maps and zoom in on the satellite view, this particular part of the street is too narrow to be seen between the buildings.
I have to say, looking at my street photos gave me some pleasant trips down memory lane. Mostly involving trips. Also, I found myself getting a medley of songs with streets in them stuck in my head. (I feel a list coming on.)
To see what other streets have been wandered for this theme, go check out Archie‘s friday foto finder blog.
collecting tokens 
Your photos of these streets are fascinating. I wonder if when this street was first built, it was considered a large street. Or if it has always been thought of as a small side road. Very cool street, regardless of the answer.
Thanks, Ally Bean!
I don’t know much about the street’s history, but I’m guessing it was still small even for its day. As Sally mentions below, there are many such small streets in older European cities. But there are also bigger older streets. It does make you wonder what they were thinking, though, doesn’t it?
It really does. I feel like I need to read more history about medieval city planning now!
I love those tiny streets in Europe! We don’t get so many of them here in the States, do we?
I also love how you always end up posting something that wasn’t in your original plan! I think you should always then post the runners-up. It’s just too intriguing, knowing that you had selected a few favorites from more recently, but then decided on something else. I can’t help speculating about what other streets you might have photographed…
Also… when I am in a car that has to pass through a narrow space (though I would never, ever have dared to try to drive down that tiny street!), I always find myself trying to make myself, my body, narrow in order to help the car fit. Totally irrational, but totally involuntary!
Ha! Yes, I do seem to be doing that frequently. I just looked back at the other photos I was considering for this, and ran into at least 1 of 2 problems for each of them 1) I wanted to post some as a set, but my set didn’t seem satisfyingly complete and/or 2) I had too much to say, and didn’t want to put the time in just now. (Well, not that I didn’t *want* to, really, it’s just that I have a lot of other commitments competing for my time.)