Oooh La La Deux

A ROUTEMASTER in Paris is definitely not a normal occurrence so imagine the reaction Joe Kerr got when he arrived in the French capital at the wheel of RML2602.

The part time Heritage Fleet driver had been invited by Transport for London to drive the bus in Paris as part of the city’s Open House Weekend, when members of the public can view famous buildings and best-kept architectural secrets.

As part of the Open House Weekend event, RATP (the Paris transportation system) and the Paris Transport Museum were keen to include a display of vintage French buses and the Routemaster from England.

The bus was already on French soil after TfL had given the bus to the Paris Transport Museum as part of the Tour de France celebrations (see separate story of Ian Waro).

Joe, who’s main job is lecturing on transport history at the Royal College of Art, said: “My name was put forward to TfL because of my experience of driving Routemasters and because of my knowledge of the history of the vehicles. I was delighted to accept the invitation and travelled to Paris at short notice to take up my assignment.”

Once there, Joe trained three people from RATP’s heritage department to drive the Routemaster, drove RML2602 from a bus garage in the suburbs to the Gare du Lyon and then parked it up so that visitors and tourists could admire the vehicle and have their questions answered.

Joe said,  “I only have schoolboy French, but the camaraderie was brilliant and the people gave me an incredibly warm welcome,”.

After driving the Routemaster through the heart of Paris turning heads as he went, Joe then stopped the vehicle at many of the main sites, including the Eiffel Tower on the banks of the Seine.