WESTERN EUROPE - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 45

058 a day'S SiGhtSeeinG in
pariS, by bike

Though Paris is packed with iconic sights, it
is not a large city. The main attractions - such
as the Champs-Elysées, Notre Dame, the
Louvre and the Avenue de l'Opera, the Marais,
Pompidou Centre and Bastille - are all within
walking distance of the principal train hubs:
Gare du Nord (for those arriving on Eurostar),
Gare de l'Est (for those arriving from the east)
and Gare de Montparnasse (for those travelling
up from the south).
The metro system can get you across Paris
quickly, but the best way to see the sights in a
day is from the comfort of a saddle. You can be
more spontaneous: stop off en route at the shops
and markets, cross one of the many bridges over
the River Seine, or follow a dead-end alleyway
that leads to that exquisite pavement café. You
even begin to feel like a Parisian.
The city's self-service cycle hire scheme,
“Vélib”, which was introduced in the summer
of 2007, has been a great success. It allows you
to pick up and drop off bicycles throughout the
city at over a thousand locations 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. You need a credit card to hire
the bikes (a E 150 deposit is held as insurance)
but it's free to use the bikes for the first half
hour; thereafter it costs E 1 for an additional half
hour, E 2 for another half hour and E 4 for every
30min after that.
The bikes have a large front basket and a
simple three-speed gear system so they aren't
exactly speed machines but you can pedal at a
decent pace, and you'll soon clock up the main
sights of Paris. Once you've seen how easy it is
to use, the metro feels dirty and inhibited. Vive
Vélib.

Need to know Parisians use the bikes as a means
of travelling to work and as a cheap way of getting
home after the metro closes, so expect a rush of
hires immediately after work and late evening. Bike-
hire pick-up locations are shown on the Google
map on Vélib's homepage: W www.en.velib.paris.fr.

(Clockwise from top left) The wide paths by Notre Dame are perfect for cycling along; Whizzing
past La Cinematheque; Jardin des Tuilleries; Organic market produce; Around Paris by vélib bike