Bridging the almost-artificial divide between conventional quadricycles and lower-powered scooters, this micro-vehicle fits the legal system in France just right, allowing it to be driven by teenagers who are not allowed to pilot an ordinary car.

Weighing 1,000 pounds and with a maximum speed of around 50 miles per hour, the idea was in part to provide a lighter-weight but ultimately street-safer alternative to bikes and mopeds for teens just learning to take the wheel.

The version of the Renault Twizy teenagers can actually drive legally is a bit smaller than described above, modified to fit within French regulations regarding the maximum size, speed and capacity of a vehicle that can be used with just a road safety certificate.

Assuming the design manages to leap the pond, it is unlikely to similarly allow younger driving in other places, but still has plenty of other advantages – at its size, it can fit into half-sized parking spaces, those extra zones you curse for not being big enough to fit your car in the city, and can even be parked perpendicular to the curb, squeezing it in just about anywhere.

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Paris is rightfully known as one of the fine art capitals of the world, and a new streetside exhibit is adding a slightly kooky angle to that reputation. Renault provided four of their itty-bitty Twingo cars to celebrity designers and gave them free reign to make them over as they saw fit. The goal was to show off the versatility and personality of the tiny cars – and that they did smashingly.

The cars were given to a German interior designer, a French fashion designer, a British pop star and an Italian chef. They were instructed to add their own unique spin to the low-cost cars and let the world know just how versatile Twingos can be. The result was four tiny art galleries on wheels.

Although the Twingo has been around since 1993, the most recent generation was criticized for being too plain-Jane and just like every other tiny French car. Renault wanted the world to know that even their “anonymous” cars could be imbued with the unique qualities of their drivers. The art cars definitely reflect the personalities of the designers who renovated them. The pop star created a dressing room in the front of her car and a recording studio in the back. The chef covered his car in dry pasta and a mobile pantry.

The French fashion designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac replaced the Renault’s seats with fancy royal furniture, and German designer Nils Holger Moormann went all-out, building a miniature library complete with a fireplace and wooden floors. The four-car exhibit, entitled “Cabinet of Curiosities,” will be on display along the Champs-Elysées until January 21, 2012.

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In 1910, with the world in the middle of various industrial and cultural revolutions, technology predictions were huge fun. It was expected that new technology would change the world, and for the most part the predictions were right – even if the reality doesn’t quite match up to the fanciful depictions of exotic machines and lifestyles.

This set of futuristic trading cards, showing what life would be like in the year 2000, was produced as a promotional giveaway by a French company in 1910. The company went out of business before the cards could be distributed, leaving only one complete set of 50 cards in existence.

The National Library of France credits these images to Villemard, but there is some controversy over what type of product they would have been distributed with. It is unknown whether a toy company or a cigarette company commissioned them. Above: students learn via audiobook and a horse is branded “A Curiosity,” perhaps because horses were expected to be extinct by 2000.

No matter what type of company ordered them, the cards depict fascinating predictions for the future. It is surprising just how many predictions come close to things that actually did exist by 2000: drive-up liquor stores (though we still drive on the ground), speech recognition software, chemical-based food (shown above), and armored cars used in combat.

There were also a few things the predictions missed by miles: radium-powered in-home heaters, wing-equipped sky cops and firefighters, and mechanical manicurists are among the most noticeably off-base.

The on-base predictions outweigh the outlandish ones, for which we must give the French people of a century ago some credit. We have to be thankful that some of these predictions never came true, though: imagine visiting a mechanical barber or being forced to get everywhere by rickety ornithopter.

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