Kele,

parking 1/2 on the sidewalk and 1/2 on the street is not legal. It is just a bad habit that most Europeans have acquired since most European cities' streets are very narrow and parking on BOTH sides of the road is allowed. Therefore, if both sides had cars parked entirely on the street, one car (even a small Peugeot or Fiat) would not have enough room to go by. Therefore, albeit illegal to "stradle" the curb, most authorities tend to look the other way for practicality reasons. They only tend to enforce the rule if you are downtown where things "have to" appear neat...:)

Yannis