We arrived in Paris around 9am local time and decided we should rethink our bike storage plan for our four day stay before we headed south. Our original plan was to drag our bike boxes and luggage to our rental flat in Montmartre; and I’m sure glad we didn’t. It is unlikely that we would have got them up the stairs or stored them here with any small amount of difficulty. Instead, we rented a 3 metre square storage locker and stashed our bikes and panniers for a few days, giving us an opportunity to explore Paris using their innovative Velib bike system.

Velib Bike system gets the ‘thumbs up’

The Velib system is similar to one we experienced in Seattle and have seen in other cities. Basically, there are bike racks all over the city with simple 3-speed cruiser bikes for rent using an automatic system. You enter a credit card info into a terminal at any of the stations and you are given a bike to use for the day for €1.80. Cheap like Paris wine. The beauty of Velib bikes is that you can return bikes and take a new one an unlimited amount of times during your 24 hour rental. This is very different than in Seattle, you had to stop every hour or so to check into a station. That presents a similar anxiety you experience driving around an electric car about to run out of charge. This I know for sure. These Velib bike stations are everywhere. There must be thousands of bikes readily available in good working order and hundreds of tourists and locals riding around on them. In fact, I saw more people riding Velib bikes than any other type of bike. There’s an incredible and free app that will pinpoint your location and give you information about surrounding stations and bike availability. Good thing I bought a European data plan! It seems they solved the helmet problem that Seattle has by not requiring helmets. For anyone. Ever. I have yet to see a cyclist wearing a helmet since we’ve been here.

Somehow ended up with these great berets

The Paris bike routes are pretty good but scary as hell. Maybe it’s the naked feeling of not wearing a helmet (we left ours in the storage locker), or maybe it’s the half hazard way that taxis and buses weave in and out of traffic and around bikes. The routes are well marked, but tourists are always wandering into them like drunk children. It takes awhile to figure out the signage and how the one-way bike lanes run opposite directions on one-way traffic streets, which is strange.

The riding itself was awesome! We rode during the mid-day heat through Monmartre and around the Eiffel Tower. We saw the Arc de Triomphe and countless monuments and landmarks. We successfully returned the bikes and picked up some fresh ones after a delicious lunch at Le Buci on Rue Dauphine and headed back to our flat for a nap. We may head out again tonight on some Velib bikes now that the weather has cooled. Three more days until we head towards Spain!

A true Parisian lunch. Tomato Tartare with Buratta and a side of steamed white asparagus with hollandaise and a perfect steak avec frites