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Paris or Bust

German Boy Takes a Tres Chic Joyride

Life can be stiflingly boring for teenagers in smalltown Germany. A 13-year-old boy tried to escape it all by setting out in his grandmother's car and driving it to Paris.

Typically, when teens steal their parents' cars for joyrides, they don't get more than a few blocks away and the trip often ends in a fender bender. Not so in Germany, where kids apparently have greater Fahrvergnügen and style. Police are reporting that a 13-year-old boy, bored with the sleepy pace of life in his small German town, apparently wanted a little more excitation in his life. They caught him trying to drive his grandmother's car to Paris, some, 700 kilometers (435 miles) away from home.

The youngster had set out on Sunday night in his grandmother's Hyundai from Rhauderfehn, a city of 17,000 inhabitants in the western German state of Lower Saxony.

Before setting off, he left behind a note for his parents informing them about his search for adventure. Maike Thiele, a police spokesperson in Leer near Rhauderfehn, told SPIEGEL ONLINE, "He wrote that he was bored and that he finally wanted to experience something." The boy also told his parents not to worry and that he would regularly update them on his adventures.

But the youngster's roadtrip came to an abrupt end just shy of Paris when French police spotted him at a service station close to the French capital on Tuesday night and returned him to his parents in Germany. His ill-fated roadtrip may be finished, but he can still look forward to a few more years of high school and, of course, ennui.

maw/dpa