Paris à vélo
I've been in Paris the last couple of days after traveling around France with my sister for several weeks. Yesterday I finally put the bike back together (I'd been hauling it around packed in its bag in the trunk of our rental car), and did a couple hour tour of Paris à vélo.
It was a thrill to be back on the bike again, I can't remember the last time I'd gone over three weeks without riding at all. I headed across to the Left Bank along the river to the Eiffel tower, continued a bit past it and over a bridge, looping back and crossing the river again to ride directly under it, dodging pedestrians and a portable swimming pool directly under the tower where they were holding introductory SCUBA lessons in 1 metre of water, but complete with wetsuits, tanks and all.
Then it was back across the river to the Arc de Triomphe with a loop around the mother of all traffic circles, dodging cars flying every which way. I spun off on one of the 12 or so streets feeding into the circle, one that I thought might lead me to Montmarte and zig-zagged my way in that general direction until I caught sight of the towering white Sacre Couer cathedral perched on the hill. Meandering up the narrow cobbled lanes to the top of the hill, I slowed to a snail's pace, weaving in and out of the throngs of tourists. It was much busier up there than on my other trips to Paris, although those had always been sometime between October and March.
After admiring the view over the city for a bit and doing some people watching, I headed back down the hill, past the Moulin Rouge all the sex shops and shows near Pigalle (still wondering what the heck "zapping" is, maybe I'll investigate when I return), back across the city to Place Republique and Place Bastille then back down Rivoli past the Louvre, through Place de la Concorde, and then back to the Marais and the hostel.
Today, I did another ride, mostly on the Left Bank, heading up Rue St. Jacques, then over to Boul Mich and the Luxembourg gardens, before riding along the expressway on the Right Bank which is closed to vehicles on Sunday.
Later tonight I hop on a train to Munich, on my way to Romania, where I will ride for a few days before meeting up with friends from who I will be traveling with there for a few weeks. Not exactly sure what is coming up after Romania. I'd been thinking of heading to Africa for a bike tour through Tanzania and Uganda, but decided the only airfare I could find here was too expensive. Nearly double what I found on some of the discount US websites, but I don't really have an easy way to get those tickets here, and don't fancy a repeat of the Great Guatemalan Ticket Wait.
At some point, I'll try to post a summary of my travels since my last update. I've started writing them up, but haven't had a chance to finishm out a very, very brief summary: bus to Costa Rica, plane to Ecuador, cycling around Ecuador (clothes torn by monkeys and dogs), plane to Paris.
It was a thrill to be back on the bike again, I can't remember the last time I'd gone over three weeks without riding at all. I headed across to the Left Bank along the river to the Eiffel tower, continued a bit past it and over a bridge, looping back and crossing the river again to ride directly under it, dodging pedestrians and a portable swimming pool directly under the tower where they were holding introductory SCUBA lessons in 1 metre of water, but complete with wetsuits, tanks and all.
Then it was back across the river to the Arc de Triomphe with a loop around the mother of all traffic circles, dodging cars flying every which way. I spun off on one of the 12 or so streets feeding into the circle, one that I thought might lead me to Montmarte and zig-zagged my way in that general direction until I caught sight of the towering white Sacre Couer cathedral perched on the hill. Meandering up the narrow cobbled lanes to the top of the hill, I slowed to a snail's pace, weaving in and out of the throngs of tourists. It was much busier up there than on my other trips to Paris, although those had always been sometime between October and March.
After admiring the view over the city for a bit and doing some people watching, I headed back down the hill, past the Moulin Rouge all the sex shops and shows near Pigalle (still wondering what the heck "zapping" is, maybe I'll investigate when I return), back across the city to Place Republique and Place Bastille then back down Rivoli past the Louvre, through Place de la Concorde, and then back to the Marais and the hostel.
Today, I did another ride, mostly on the Left Bank, heading up Rue St. Jacques, then over to Boul Mich and the Luxembourg gardens, before riding along the expressway on the Right Bank which is closed to vehicles on Sunday.
Later tonight I hop on a train to Munich, on my way to Romania, where I will ride for a few days before meeting up with friends from who I will be traveling with there for a few weeks. Not exactly sure what is coming up after Romania. I'd been thinking of heading to Africa for a bike tour through Tanzania and Uganda, but decided the only airfare I could find here was too expensive. Nearly double what I found on some of the discount US websites, but I don't really have an easy way to get those tickets here, and don't fancy a repeat of the Great Guatemalan Ticket Wait.
At some point, I'll try to post a summary of my travels since my last update. I've started writing them up, but haven't had a chance to finishm out a very, very brief summary: bus to Costa Rica, plane to Ecuador, cycling around Ecuador (clothes torn by monkeys and dogs), plane to Paris.
posted by Matt at 06:48
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