Day 30: Arras to Bezons, France: How Are You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm after They've Seen Paris?

June 18, 2012

As expected, the various restrictions set out by the man in the ticket booth yesterday had no teeth. When our TGV came, we just lifted the whole bikes with their panniers on. The little bike room (looked like it used to be a galley) had hooks for four bikes. Since there were no other cyclists, our bikes just happily parked in the room, while we went and sat in our assigned seats.

No problem stashing our whole kit in the bike room.

The TGV did not seem very high tech, with decor much like a subway car.

On the other hand it barreled along quite well and trucks on the autoroutes we passed seemed to be standing still. In seemingly no time we were in Paris.

The Gare du Nord. Note the heroic statuary.

Unlike London, there was no crowding and seemingly no one rushing earnestly off to some business meeting. We walked our bikes into the large concourse and up to the centrally located tourist information. While Dodie absorbed the map she picked up, I strolled onto the street for a peek.

Pedestrians seem to dominate the scene. A few unhurried cars are roaming around.

Dodie had carefully recorded the queue sheet from Google maps, showing how to get from the Gare du Nord to Didier's house just beyond the boundary of Paris itself, in the north west. We sallied out into the street, but before starting our shot across the city we perched at a small snack bar beside a hotel. The price list for the hotel certainly caught our attention:

Look, double rooms on sale. Dodie says at these prices she would sleep on the street, in the rain. That even applies to the sale price, she says.

But the cafe was reasonably priced, at 6 or 7 Euros for a meal.

We grab this at a small cafe/snack bar. It has a middle eastern influence.

We are sitting at our first (sort of) snack bar in Paris.

Lots of people in this neighbourhood (and from what we saw as we crossed a bit of Paris) seem to come from Africa.

So it was that we started cycling across Paris. We were beginning in the Montmartre district (I think that would be the 10th "Arrondissement", which may be a special case. However, it was immediately obvious that, unlike London, it was the pedestrians and not the cars that had priority. The relatively narrow streets prevented the cars from gathering in large rampaging herds, and there were many crosswalks and bike lanes.

The buildings seemed like all five or six story walkups, and making together a striking cityscape. The streets were filled with small shops, and no shortage of bakeries!

The first bakery we spotted in Paris. There is actually one on every block (more or less).

a street in Montmartre. We crossed this sector on the way to Didier's house, north west of the city.

We stop to smell the roses while zooming across Paris

Eventually we passed into an area of wider streets, but even there the absolute number of cars and their speed was not too great. We never felt a particular sense of danger. This was so much different from London, where we cowered in amazement on the sidewalk.

Even when the streets widen as we get a bit out of town, the traffic is neither heavy nor fast and frantic.

Partially, our confidence in crossing Paris was because we are naturally used to driving on the right. But a main factor is that the drivers do not (usually) behave as if they own the road, and both drivers and pedestrians seemed to accept the place of the bicycle in the mix. This is not to say that we saw a whole lot of bicycles, which is puzzling.

In the distance are some skyscrapers that we hope to not visit.

As we cross the Bezons bridge we have a dedicated bike lane.

We made it to Didier's place. Didier was one of the first serious boyfriends of our eldest daughter, Joni. We are talking 20 years ago. Yet we were warmly received, and talked late into the night.

Tomorrow we will have a real look at Paris, at least as far as the standard tourist sites go. Next day, we will walk around with Didier and maybe get a more inside view. The next day we will declare ourselves Paris experts, and leave town!

The Family:

Today's ride: 20 km (12 miles)
Total: 1,010 km (627 miles)

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