FMFT in Paris.

FMFT is back from Paris and is able to report that it’s probably only really as much of a cycling city as London, and not some nirvana where every journey is on two wheels and everyone has a bike (although arguably a large number of journeys seem to be undertaken on scooters, but that’s not quite the same). There are bike lanes, but they play second fiddle to the roads and there is, obviously, the bike hire scheme which beats London’s for a snappy title, but seems to be much on a par otherwise. This wouldn’t be a FMFT write up on a trip abroad with out the obligatory shot of a hire station, so here is the Velib:

During our stay Paris was, supposedly, a hotbed of revolution and protest. But we only saw one small march, lazily overseen by a total of three riot police lurking around a corner, and causing more inconvenience to people wanting to get into a park than anything else.

Otherwise I’m afraid our Paris weekend was slightly short of bike news. We did see the bikes for hire in the gardens of the Palais de Versailles, and trod in the wheel-tracks of champions on the Champs Elysée, but somehow nothing to make Paris as much of a cycling city as Amsterdam. Maybe the main reason is there’s just too much else to look at and enjoy to be really worried about how people are getting around, although in retrospect maybe bikes would have saved our tired feet from walking round the wonderful sites.

Returning to the UK again it’s always nice to feel like we’re good at something here. It seems that thing is organising an event, which, everyone agrees, we do jolly well. Why, was perhaps highlighted by an example from our trip where it has to be said that the Eurostar experience from the St Pancras end is far smoother and simpler than form the Gare du Nord side. I think even the French would agree with me on that one.

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