Surly Bikes
I have always dreamed of riding my bicycle around Paris. Well, perhaps not always, but certainly since my very first visit there. It was about 7 years ago; I came to Paris (begrudgingly) with my wife. She had always wanted to visit the city of light, and so we did. We were in England for her to present a paper at an education conference and afterwards we hopped on a train and rode it under the English Channel, all the ways to Paris.
The first thing that really struck me about that city was all the people on bicycles. Unlike many big biking cities in Europe, Paris looks like a regular city. There are very few separated bike lanes (like in Amsterdam and Berlin), and many streets don’t even have a bike lane. But that doesn’t stop people from riding there bikes here. Quite the contrary; this city is full of cyclists. They ride everywhere. All ages, sizes, genders and shapes ride in Paris. I was so taken with it the first time we came that I went home, bought a new bike and went the next two years riding it everywhere, forgoing the use of my car almost entirely. That was a big deal for a chubby fella like myself. Paris is the reason that I ride my bike so much now.
The next time my wife and I went to Paris, we tried to rent the city bikes that they had here, but couldn’t figure it out, so no biking. The next time, we figured out why we couldn’t use the city bike program and that’s because our pathetic American credit cards didn’t have a “chip and pin” system, which you need to rent a city bike in Paris.
I am in Paris now (taking a small side trip before Eurobike), and this time I had it all figured out. Packed my travel bike (Trucker Deluxe), packed this wicked cool collapsible trailer and all my clothes and stuff with it. The plan was to get my luggage, ride the train from the airport to the main train station in Paris, sit on the majestically scenic steps of the station, put my bike and trailer together, pack my stuff on the trailer and ride around until I could check into my hotel. The goal this trip was to never use public transportation, but to only use the bike. That’s what this post was going to be about. Pictures of me putting my bike together eating a baguette, packing up my trailer, my bike leaning against the Louvre and all that such blogy nonsense.
Here’s the hitch. The airline lost my luggage.
So, no pictures, no trailer, took the subway to the hotel and wondered if the Gods just don’t want me riding my bike in Paris.
Then again, this time I have a chip and pin credit card, so perhaps I’ll get on one of those.
Here is the link to the trailer I was going to include, it's pretty awesome and a perfect companion piece to a Trucker Deluxe.
[url=http://www.freeparable.com/t2]http://www.freeparable.com/t2[/url]
Hopefully my bike (and clothes) will get delivered to the hotel tomorrow and all will be well. If not…sorry to everyone at Eurobike for how much I stink.