Giant Drive-in Movie Theater with Fiat 500s at the Grand Palais in Paris

The world's first drive-in movie theater opened in Camden, New Jersey 80 years ago this month. And while it has taken quite a long time for Paris to adopt this iconic American innovation, the film company MK2 certainly outdid itself with Cinéma Paradiso, a temporary drive-in movie theater installed under the enormous nave of the Grand Palais. From June 10 until June 21, those who were lucky enough to purchase tickets in advance will have the opportunity to watch classic movies, such as Grease, Taxi Driver, The Big Lebowski,Pulp Fiction, Psycho, or Annie Hall, from the front (or perhaps the back!) seat of a Fiat 500L or Fiat 500 convertible. With rows of traditional theater seating, deck chairs and mattresses with pillows, there are 900 places per screening. Due to the overwhelming success of Cinéma Paradiso, however, seats for almost all of the movies were sold out shortly after they became available online. As of this posting, there are still tickets available at FNAC for the 11:55 pm showing of Sugarman on June 21 and the 2:00 am showing of Hair on June 22.

But the good news is that even if you can't snuggle up with your sweetheart in a Fiat 500, there's still an exciting array of other activities for adults and children at the Grand Palais. In keeping with the retro-theme, there's an American diner serving amazingly delicious cheeseburgers, a roller skating rink that turns into a hip nightclub in the evening, vintage arcade machines, foosball and champagne bars serving flutes of Moët and Chandon. It's still Paris, after all!

An intense game of foosball in the Grand Palais.

Determined to escape all of the work that requires my attention after being away from Paris for two weeks, I was thankful when Sylvia agreed to play hooky with me this afternoon. We posed for photos with silly props at the Velib' stand, drooled over the American junk food at Colette and agreed that the organizers had done a very good job of transporting us back to our childhood in the USA.

If you would like to experience a bit of Americana in Paris, regular entrance tickets for Cinéma Paradiso are available at FNAC for 11.50€ for adults and 6.50€ for children and at the entrance of the Grand Palais for 13.50€ for adults and 8.50€ for children.

Please click here to see additional photos of Cinéma Paradiso on "Out and About's" Facebook page.

Cheers and congratulations to actor David Atrakchi and actress Sophie Meister who were celebrating their second wedding anniversary in a Fiat 500 at Cinéma Paradiso!