It is easy to get around in Paris. The fastest way to get from one place to another in the city is usually the metro. Problem is, you don't see much that way. On a nice day like last Wednesday, walking is always a good option — if you have time.
Other good options are the bus or the bicycle. Buses are good because you can sightsee as you go — but you need to know the routes. The bike is good exercise but you really have to pay attention to what you are doing. Still, next to walking, cycling is probably the best way to get a real feel for the city. There are many more bicycles in Paris now than back when I lived there.
Back in the early 1970s, when I first went to Paris and spent a few years there, people rode little motorized bikes called Vélos Solex or Mobylettes. You don't see those any more. But you do see a lot of bigger motorbikes and motorcycles. Lately, you see more and more of the bikes like the one above that has two wheels in the front and just one in the back.
Another thing about riding the buses is that you do have to wait for them. They don't run as frequently as the underground metro trains. Waiting gives you time to study the maps and learn the routes. Or just to sit and watch and wait.
I used to work in the neighborhood where I took these pictures. For a year or two I worked on the Rue des Saints-Pères, just off the Boulevard Saint-Germain. I remember having coffee or lunch many times in the café called Le Rouquet that you see above. But I never had a motorcycle.
I did a lot of walking. The guy in the photo above could have been me 40 years ago. I was skinny like that, from all the walking and stair-climbing. It was a healthy life. Last Wednesday I was retracing some of those 40-year-old steps as I made my way on foot from the Place de la Concorde over to the Gare d'Austerlitz.
As always an interesting read, Ken...
ReplyDeletebikes are the best form of transport...
after 2CVs, of course....
I notice two electricly assisted City bikes in use in the first picture...
more and more large cities... and some towns... seem to be installing them.
It is a nice idea... especially if your flat isn't at pavement level....
I've lugged bikes up and down narrow stairwells to keep them safe...
'tis no fun... and going down the bike is always far less controlable!!
The design of those three-wheel scooters is far more stable than the older, rear-paired Shopper designs....
the "tadpole" shape has come from the cycling fraternity...
firstly as shop transport... and, more recently, as an alternative to the kiddies tricycle look for adults...
you can get a "trandem" as well... no need to lean a three-wheeler over to getoffit or parkit...
and if you want to stop and look at something you remain sitting in the saddle.
The modern shop bikes are almost all tadpole...
but you are no longer steering the whole front end and load....
cripes, that must not have been fun....
instead, there is a load carrier behind the cyclist...
La Poste in Descartes has at least one...
and also some electric-assist bikes...
stabilised by "kiddies" training wheels at the back...
or a kick-down support frame at the front...
it seems to be a form of bike-evolution!!
Tim, I don't think those are electric bikes. They look like the standard Vélib' bikes to me.
DeleteLooking again....
Deleteyou're damn right!
I obviously hadn't got my correct eyes in this morning...
mind you, that comment was written precofffeeeeee!
thanks a lot for your very interesting posts of Paris.I've been there only once but could sence the feeling by seen and reading your post. so big thanks. Jaana
ReplyDeleteThanks for your nice comment, Jaana.
DeleteI'm a huge fan of Vélib. It tends to be my preferred mode, unless it's raining or I want to go somewhere very much uphill. The only problem tends to be not so much finding a bike that's working as finding an unoccupied parking post at the station nearest where I want to go - if it's anywhere near the Marais or BHV they tend to fill up and one can end up going miles out of the way to find one. But I suppose that just encourages one to walk more anyway.
ReplyDeleteI have never ridden a bicycle in Paris, and I admire those who have.
DeleteI see paris has retired the old buses for something more modern. and the 2 front-wheel motorbikes - have not seen the like of those here! I have seen some motorbikes built like adult tricycles though.
ReplyDeleteWhat period buses do you remember? I've always thought the Paris buses seemed modern for their time. They have big clean windows, so the view is nice. Sometimes they're crowded, and sometimes traffic is bad so the bus moves slowly, but the ride is always scenic.
DeleteThe year I lived in Paris, I didn't really start using the bus until the last month of my stay, which was a shame! And, it turned out that there was a bus stop right behind my apartment building, whereas the closest two Metro stops were a 20-minute walk. Now, when I go to Paris, I use the bus as much as the Métro-- I have my handy little bus-routes booklet :) Last time I was there, I was waiting at a stop near École Militaire, and two older French women were looking at the map, trying to figure out the route they needed. One asked me if I knew if this bus went somewhere or another, and I didn't know off-hand, so I was helping them look at the map to figure it out. Then, I said something to my sister in English, and that ended that interaction--one of them said to the other, in French, "Oh, she won't know anything, she's just a tourist." Silly. I had just been interacting with them in French, and clearly understand the bus map and system better than they, but once they heard me speak English, that was the end of that. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen people in Paris or elsewhere in France ask me for directions, I just tell them "je ne suis pas d'ici" or "je ne suis pas du quartier." It's easier that way. It's a credibility issue.
DeleteI enjoyed that story Judith. It's neat that you were trusted for a moment there.
ReplyDeleteI'm enjoying learning about these new types of motorcycles. I've only ridden on one once in my life and not in Paris. It was London and I was on a chaperoned trip and I was only 15. I think our chaperones had gone to sleep and a few of us made friends with some Bobbies who gave us a rides to Soho. What was I thinking? Oh, now I remember I was only 15 and braver than I am now....
We've been taking the bus in Paris for the last few times we've been there, for all the reasons you mentioned. Fewer stairs too. Before we leave in the morning, I scope out our intended routes on the RATP site (http://www.ratp.fr, in French; there's an English site, but my experience with it hasn't been good). Last summer, an older French woman asked me for help finding her way on the Metro. She'd just had her eyes dilated and couldn't read the signs, so she didn't give a hoot if my French was local. We had a nice chat on our way to her stop; she was a nun in town for a few weeks from her post in Guinea.
ReplyDeleteKen, your encouragement was the reason I started taking the bus in Paris.
ReplyDeleteI love taking buses in Paris as long as there is no hurry. The only problem is learning the route back since often buses do not stop on the same street for the reverse trip.
ReplyDelete