"I don't need a spot to park"

Coming to the end of the second week in Paris I have came to the conclusion that the Parisians idea of finding a place to park is much different than us Americans. They will park literally everywhere, sometimes backing into cars just to barely fit in a spot that they have no business in. Almost every car has hundreds of dings and scratches on it and it doesn't seem to bother them at all. Just today on the way to school a car decided it would park in the middle of the road, at the time it wasn't really blocking anyone in but for sure would eventually. Just the other day I overheard a conversation with an english speaking parisian and how much he pays in parking fees. I wanted to tell him, have you seen how you all park? Those smart cars can literally park in a spot in any direction you want, today I saw one backed up over the curb with the front of the car facing the road. What are they thinking? I guess we can say we park better.