Velib et Tour de France

This post is devoted to the noble sport of biking. It will go down in two sections:
Part the first: Ruth Ann explores biking as public transportation.
Part the second: The Tour de France riders arrive in Paris!

I. And we begin. I left Paris in May of 2007, and in July of 2007, the city started installing bikes as forms of public transportation. The system is called "Velib" (velo= bike; lib= play on liberty,) and there are more than 20,000 bikes and 1,450 stations.

A map of Paris, showing all the stations. Obviously they are everywhere.

A station looks like this. You go up to the machine, insert your transportation pass if you are a native (it was more complicated for me because I don't have a European bank card, but I won't bore you with details...) suffice it to say that I took out a week's subscription to the service. So at any time during that week, I could approach any station in the city, punch in my code, and take a bike. It costs 5 euros ($7) to take out a weekly account. If you return the bike to a station in under 30 mins, you pay nothing. If your trip takes from 30-59 minutes, you pay one euro ($1.40), and it starts getting more expensive after that. Even if your trip will take more than 30 minutes, you can easily check your bike in at any station, and continue (so you don't pay anything.)

As we all know, I require my bikes to be equipped with baskets. As these are.
People using these bikes are not tourists; they are Parisians. Working people can toss their purse or briefcase in the basket, and be on their way. And, be it noted LIZ MOORE, that MANY Parisian women ride in their dresses (and heels)! So there.

So this system is fantastic and I loved using it. The only problem I encountered is that streets randomly turn into going only one way, and I don't know which ones do that. So as long as you don't find yourself in the middle of a busy intersection with cars coming at you and nowhere to go, it's great.

It is perhaps both my greatest accomplishment... or dumbest thing I've ever done... or both... that I successfully rode my bike around Etoile (the Arc de Triomphe, see below.)

Velib's slogan: "Life is more beautiful on a bike." I agree.

II. The Tour de France arrives! After 21 days, the bikers appeared in Paris for the last leg of their grueling trip. This involves doing 8 laps from Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe (pictures below to explain.)

My picture of the riders from where I was standing on the Champs-Elysees.

This is the Arc de Triomphe (where I rode my Velib bike around one day... crazy, I know.) The giant street is the Champs-Elysees. The white spot at the end of it is Concorde. The riders did eight laps between Concorde and the Arc.

This is what it looks like at Concorde (I didn't take this picture, obviously, but here it is). (Note: Concorde is where the Hotel Crillon is.)

View as they are heading from the Arc toward Concorde

In this video, you can see the first group whizzing by, followed by the peleton several seconds later. As you can see, they are FAST. It was pretty cool to see. Kind of like Nascar, but not as loud as they passed.

And, for David Graham's benefit, more cars. Let it be noted that all these pictures were taken either on George V (where I live,) or on Avenue Montaigne (where I work.)