Car chase through Paris

The car chase through Paris begins immediately after Sophie Neveu and Robert Langdon escape from the Louvre by tricking Captain Bezu Fache into chasing a bar of soap embedded with a GPS tracking dot. As they flee the museum, Sophie drives her red SmartCar—a snub-nosed two-seater that achieves a hundred kilometers per liter—across the plaza and onto the gravel divider, bouncing over a curb and into the small rotary at Carrousel du Louvre. Langdon, gripping the dashboard, warns her not to take a shortcut across the median's hedge, which hides the perilous chasm of La Pyramide Inversée, the upside-down pyramid skylight large enough to swallow their car. Sophie instead jams the wheel hard to the right, circles properly, and accelerates toward Rue de Rivoli.

Pursuit Through the City

As they race toward the intersection at Rivoli, the traffic light turns red, but Sophie keeps accelerating, flicking her headlights and stealing a quick glance both ways before flooring the accelerator and carving a sharp left turn through the empty intersection. She then banks to the right around a wide rotary and shoots out onto the wide avenue of Champs-Élysées. Langdon, turning in his seat, sees a sea of blue lights assembling at the museum rather than chasing them directly. The police sirens blare in the distance, but the immediate pursuit has been evaded. Sophie's eyes remain fixed ahead down the two-mile stretch of posh storefronts, and she tells Langdon that the embassy is only about a mile away.

The Embassy Blockade

Sophie swings the SmartCar's wheel to the right, cutting sharply past the luxurious Hôtel de Crillon into Paris's tree-lined diplomatic neighborhood. She feels she can finally breathe normally again. But as they approach the embassy, Langdon points ahead: a hundred yards away, the intersection is blocked by a couple of DCPJ police cars parked askew, their purpose obvious. The officers beside the cars stare in their direction, curious about the headlights that halted so abruptly. Sophie puts the car in reverse, performs a composed three-point turn, and reverses direction. As she drives away, she hears squealing tires and sirens blaring to life behind them. Cursing, she slams down the accelerator.

The Train Station Diversion

Sophie's SmartCar tears through the diplomatic quarter, weaving past embassies and consulates, finally racing out a side street and taking a right turn back onto the massive thoroughfare of Champs-Élysées. Langdon sits white-knuckled in the passenger seat, twisted backward, scanning for any signs of the police. Sophie seems to have lost them, at least for the moment. She drives to Gare Saint-Lazare, where she parks the SmartCar in a red zone and hands a taxi driver a big wad of cash. The taxi speeds off without them, and Sophie leads Langdon into the train station, where she buys two tickets to Lyon with Langdon's credit card. They then exit through a side door, take a different taxi, and tear up the tickets, leaving a false trail for the police. The chase ends with the taxi heading northbound on Rue de Clichy, as Langdon and Sophie duck down when police lights flash past them in the opposite direction.