Stopping Traffic in Paris

On our first visit to Paris in 1979, I felt I just had to see the historical Arch-de-Triomph.

This enormous shrine is located right smack in the middle of a huge four-lane circular street called CHAMPS-ELYSEE. Literally thousands of cars and buses careen around it daily - VERY FAST!

There are no traffic lights in the circle, so I had to do the best I could to run through all that traffic to get across the street to the building. After waiting for an eternity it seemed, I noticed a slight opening in the traffic. I took out my handkerchief and waved it furiously as I dashed through all four lanes of Paris traffic! All the cars started honking and yelling foreign words at me, and some of the drivers even waved the strangest signals with their hands and fingers!

When I finally made it across safely another pedestrian already over there asked me, "Why didn't you just use the pedestrian subway - it's much safer?"