PARIS, January 6, 2008  - A "visibly drunk" motorist was caught driving
for up to 30 kilometres (20 miles) on the wrong side of the Paris ring-road,
French police said Sunday.
   In a "manifestly inebriated state," according to police, a 21-year-old male
spent the early hours of Sunday in a cell after a preliminary hearing set a
court date for May.
   The driver's Peugot 206 was spotted by police at 0420 (0320 GMT) near Porte
de Clichy, one of dozens of gateways into the city served by the ring-road.
   The police car was on the inner ring-road, and noticed the driver
travelling at roughly the same speed on the outer portion, and thus in the
wrong direction.
   With police unable to attract his attention, the man turned on to the A1
motorway, heading north, again on the wrong side of the road.
   He was finally stopped by traffic cops near the Stade de France stadium
north of Paris, which has hosted rugby and football World Cup finals.
   He had been heading home in the northwest Val-d'Oise region between Paris
and Normandy.
   Police said the young man may have left a nightclub in Louveciennes, on the
outskirts of the French capital.