Vélov'

Just wanted to be clear that I don't always drink alone. Not that four kirs side-by-side prove it...These puppies were made with crème de framboise, raspberry liqueur, which I brought to a classmate's house for apéritifs a couple nights before school started.

Riding a bicycle along the Seine on a warm evening--it doesn't get much better than that. Paris is blessed with a network of self-service rental bikes called vélib' (pictured below--photo taken from their website), which I can only assume is short for vélo libre, or "free bicycle" (the kind of "free" that describes freedom, rather than not having to pay). Nick and I first discovered the vélib' a couple trips to Paris ago, and had heard rumors that they were no longer available, due to theft and other unfortunate shenanigans, and were thrilled to find, upon our arrival, that they are still in full effect. There are banks of 3-speed bikes stationed all over the city--every 300 meters, according to the website--and once you subscribe to the service (1€ for one day, 5€ for seven days, and 29€ for a year--plus a security deposit of 150€ in case you run off with one of the vélos), you can take one out from any of them, and return it to any other. The first 30 minutes of any trip are free of charge, and the bikes are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, allowing for an unlimited number of trips per day. It's amazing! I've started riding the vélib' to school almost every day, and just today, after doing so for a week, I found my way home (not the same as the outbound route, due to a profusion of one-way streets and a downright un-gridlike layout). I get such a kick (although wicked messy hair) out of exercising during my commute. We try to take the bikes as often as possible, and while it sometimes takes about as long as taking the métro, other times it's considerably faster, particularly where changing métro lines at huge stations would otherwise be concerned.

A few thoughts and tidbits of advice from my week-plus of vélib'ing this time around:

• A good idea when you stop at a red light, if you're a 3rd-gear rider like me, is to down-shift, so that when the light turns green, you can take off without too much effort or swervy nonsense. This may be obvious to you, but wasn't to me.
• Hand signals are a big, important deal when you're riding in traffic and go a long way toward getting cars to let you in where you want to be. Again, all city riders may know this already, but I hadn't given it much thought. Maybe I should have called this section "Things You Knew and I Didn't."
  
• The iPhone app "Velo" is fantabulous. It costs $2.99 and has maps of all the vélib' stations, *plus* a fairly up-t0-date account of how many bikes and "parking spots" are available at each one. It has this information not only for Paris, but also for 14 other cities that have similar bike networks--in France and elsewhere in Europe.
• There are one-way streets in the 9th and 10th arrondissements (and probably elsewhere) that have bike lanes going in the opposite direction, so that you can more easily get where you're going without having to make your route excessively circuitous.
• I still haven't figured out what the local custom is regarding red lights. Some bikers stop, and some slow down and then go through if there aren't any cars or pedestrians coming. And some drivers and motorcyclists get annoyed and yell at them. Or me, as the case may be. Clearly jealous.
• There are bike/bus lanes around a lot of the city, and a lot of cabs that drive in them. I can't figure out whether they're bikes or buses.
• If you head off on a vélib' in the general direction of where you thinking you're going, you may not end up there, but you can always return the bike and take the métro if you end up in the middle of somewhere else.
  

I heartily recommend trying vélib' if you're in Paris and know how to ride a bike. If you don't live here and come to visit us, we will inevitably do our best to show you what fun it can be to tool around town on two wheels. Happy riding!