Route through Paris

The Leslie Special
Celebrating the cars and characters of The Great Race.

THE ROUTE THROUGH PARIS

The route taken through Paris at the end of the film was probably selected purely to show some "typical" Paris scenes, rather than a coherent route.
They would have selected small roads which had little "modern" development in the 1960's.
Most of the buildings visible in the movie survive virtually unchanged today, although many roads are now one-way, or foot only.
Images on the left come directly from the movie. Those on the right are from Google "Street View". Click any modern image to see it on Google Maps.
(Time stamps are taken from the standard PAL DVD release.)
Also note, the back projections are from the same streets as the live shots, but a billboard has changed at one point, so they were filmed on a different date to the live shots.
Also, the same street is shown twice behind the Leslie Special (Scene 6 and Scene 8), so they must not have filmed the correct street for the second scene.

Scene 1 [2:31:21] Hannibal T8 enters Paris, travelling north on Rue Mouffetard
Scene 2a [2:31:24] Hannibal T8 turns left into Rue du Pot de Fer
Scene 2b [2:31:28] Turned into Rue du Pot de Fer
Scene 3 [2:31:35] Projected screen behind HT8. Continues north on Rue Mouffetard as if they had not turned left at Rue du Pot de Fer.		(White billboard over blue wall is visible in later shot, but with a different poster on it)
Scene 4a [2:31:37] HT8 comes from Rue Mouffetard and turns right ...
Scene 4b [2:31:44] ... into Rue Lacépède
Scene 5a [2:31:45] & Scene 5b [2:31:48] Leslie special, identical route to Scene 2a & 2b
Scene 6 [2:31:52]		Studio projection. You can see the same archway in the background on the left, as in the photo above, but this time, the car goes straight ahead along Rue Mouffetard, and does not turn left into Rue du Pot de Fer.
Scene 6b [2:32:00] Northbound on Rue Mouffetard, just past Rue Saint Médard The White billboard was covering windows on the building corner.
Scene 7 [2:32:04] Leslie special emerging from Rue Mouffetard, into Place de la Contrescarpe.
Scene 8a [2:32:09] After passing through Place de la Contrescarpe the same back projection footage is reused. Compare to the background in Scene 6b above.
Scene 8b [2:32:18] The clock in the background is still there!
Scene 9 [2:32:28] Montmartre steps
Scene 10a [2:32:34] Crossing the Pont Loius Philippe
Scene 10b [2:32:42] Turn right into Quai de Bourbon
Scene 11a [2:32:54] Westbound on Quai d'Anjou about to turn left into Rue des Deux Ponts
Scene 11b [2:33:05] Southbound on Rue des Deux Ponts
Scene 12a [2:33:09] Coming from Rue des Deux Ponts
Scene 12b [2:33:11] Crossing the Pont de la Tournelle (n,b, This bridge opened in 1928, so it didn't exist in 1908.)
Scene 13a [2:33:13] Fate drives up Quai de Béthune before turning left onto Pont de la Tournelle
Scene 13b [2:33:23] Just after Fate crosses the Pont de la Tournelle
Scene 14 [2:33:24] Projection shot, as Fate crosses Pont de la Tournelle
Scene 15 [2:33:42] Eiffel Tower
Scene 16 [2:33:46] Avenue Anatole France

Fate's route is in orange, Leslie in Red. The scene numbers from above are shown on the map.
No attempt is made to join sections together, as they don't make sense anyway.
(Particularly the bits around Île Saint-Louis, and Fate's detour to the Montmartre steps.)

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FINIS