Bike Riding in Paris with Celia

In honor of Celia's 16th birthday, we took a girl's only trip to Paris. One of the highlights was our bike ride from Place de la Bastille then along the Seine to Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower. The Velib bikes that you can rent in Paris are so great! You can find them everywhere and they are so fun to ride. You just have to have a credit card with a chip on it. 

The traffic in Paris is a bit intimidating to ride through the first time...the taxi drivers are incredibly aggressive and would love to push bikes out of their way if they could!  The secret is confidence and a fairly good grasp of French traffic laws and the Paris streets!  If you ignore the taxis and push your way through, no worries.  Even more interesting at times was the tourists.  Even excusing ourselves politely, many tourists have their heads in the clouds and were completely unaware that there were cars and bikes around them.  Amazing that more tourists don't go home in a flat pack box!!  We found that Saturday before lunch and Sundays are the best times to take to the roads. 

In two hours we covered almost all of the heart of Paris!  With the sun shining and the perfect weather, it was a perfect end to a beautiful trip to Paris!

This group was celebrating an enterrement de vie...the last days of freedom for the cute little ballerina!  They were golfing in the Champ du Mars in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower.  One of the red shirts had a rolling suitcase full of libations.  Note that this was at around 11h00 on a Saturday morning!  I can just imagine how well our ballerina could dance by the wee hours of that night!!

http://www.velib.paris.fr/