Another day in Paris

June 2, 2022

What could be better than a sunny day in Paris? Two sunny days in Paris, of course.

It’s beautiful again today, if a little cooler and breezier. The Advil helped, but Rachael is still sore enough this morning that another long walk today is out of the question. We tell Susan that we want to take an easy ride and she’s free to join us if she can find wheels - Vivian George is in the ER for some inpatient surgery, laid low by a broken derailleur hanger.

Susan has a plan for that. She’ll pick up a city bike from Velib and join us. The catch: her account with Velib limits her to at most 30 minutes with one bike. She can check it back in and immediately check out another, but it means our time together will be broken up a bit - she’ll pick up a bike, ride with it a ways and then check it back in and replace it with a new one.

Well, and there’s a second catch. We’re in the 15th arrondissement, which is outside of the urban core where most of the employment is. This means that if you arrive at a bike station in mid morning that it will be empty, with all of the morning’s bikes now parked downtown after having been used to commute to work.

Or, as happens here, there may be one or two bikes still in the rack, but out of commission for some reason.

Susan ran ahead to beat anyone else to the last bikes, but they’re here because they’re nonfunctional at the moment. I don’t know what the problem with the far one is, but the defects of the nearer one are apparent.

Finally, three bike stations into the search, we have a winner.

Wow! All of us could have ridden one of these beauts this morning. Also, a note to remember when you watch the video later - green bikes are the meaties; the blue ones are eBikes, which is why you’ll see them zipping past me like I’m standing still.

I have two stops from yesterday’s circuit I want to revisit: the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, and the Place de la Concorde. We’re going to the bridge because I want to see Île aux Cygnes (the Isle of Swans), which begins there and runs downriver. I didn’t see it yesterday because I didn’t think think to look off both sides of the bridge. And I want to go to the Place de la Concorde because I want to look at the Egyptian obelisk which I gave short notice to yesterday, thinking it was some modern construction like the Washington Monument. Had I remembered it was stolen from the temple of Ramses II at Luxor and is actually 3,000 years old I’d have been more respectful.

About twenty minutes into the ride we come to Île aux Cygnes. Susan leaves us to walk down the stairs to it while she heads off to the nearest bike stand to swap bikes. The plan is that we’ll bike to the Grenelle Bridge at opposite end of the island, see the Statue of Liberty there, and meet Susan after she shows up with her new mount.

Looking down Île aux Cygnes. A filament and that splits the river,it’s an artificial island created to protect the Pont de Grenelle, the bridge at the opposite end.

Image not found :( — These two also appear out of service.

We cross the Grenelle Bridge to reach the right bank and wait for Susan to bike up, which should happen any minute. She doesn’t show though, and after five or ten Rachael remembers she can look up Susan’s position on the phone. She isn’t where we thought she’d be, because the bike station is actually up the hill a ways (up the top of the staircase we saw that father holding his son sliding down the railing yesterday). We watch her progress as she starts moving and slowly makes her way back to the river again and finally starts working our way. By the time she finally arrives she must have used up much of the 30 minute allotment on this bike too.

Ok, here she comes. Zoomed in, I see her coming about a half an island away.

Susan announces that its about time for lunch, which sounds good to us too. We bike over to the Champ de Mars, the large park below the Eiffel Tower that was filled with sunset seekers last night. We wait by Pont d’Lena (the bridge that leads to the Eiffel Tower) while Susan heads off to turn in this bike, and then find a bare patch of grass and settle in for a real Paris lunch.

There’s that tower again, this time from across the river.

At the Pont d’Lena, waiting for Susan to return after parking her second bike.

And that concludes this mixed modal experiment. Rachael’s had enough for the moment at least and is ready to head back to the room. Susan walks back to her apartment while I bike with Rachael back to our hotel. She and Susan will head out again a couple of hours later for a second excursion, but for now I drop off Rachael and just keep biking.

I’ve got a few specific things I want to see before leaving the city tomorrow morning - Luxembourg Gardens, what remains of the nearly destroyed Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Luxor obelisk. I do pretty well, returning back to the hotel fresh from seeing two out of three - after all this, I totally forgot about the obelisk at the end and biked home without seeing it.

Oh, and I had Rachael’s GoPro woikin:

Video sound track: Performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, André Previn conducting.

In the Luxembourg Gardens. And yes, I know you can’t bike there. I’m on foot and wheeling the BF along to pose here and there. It’s a huge park and I’m at it for the better part of an hour.

Luxembourg Palace, and the Grand Bassin.

Boating on the Grand Bassin. For six euros you can rent a sailboat for an hour, hand it to your kids, and take it easy while they launch it from the side of the pool and then watch to see which way the wind blows it. I wonder what happens if the wind dies while the boat’s in the middle - do you get charged a late return fee?

In the Luxembourg Gardens. A huge place. There must be a thousand people here this afternoon, sunning, watching the boats drift by, reading, playing chess, napping.

In Place Saint-Michel: the Saint Michel Fountain portrays the Archangel Michael wrestling with the devil.

Notre Dame Cathedral, devastated by fire in 2019. The restoration plan is for it to be open for service by 2024, in time for the Olympic Games; and for reconstruction to be complete in 15-20 years. Maybe I’ll see it that way again.

Many of the critical elements of the cathedral thankfully survived, enough so that restoration seemed possible.

The Palace of Justice from Pont Neuf, the oldest standing bridge in Paris.

Which concludes the day’s activities, after I return to the hotel and Rachael drags in an hour later.

But wait, there’s more! We still have the evening ahead, we need to eat, and we’ve still got Susan’s company for a few more hours. We all head copper to a Thai restaurant a few blocks away and enjoy some of the best Thai cuisine we’ve ever had. And we accompany it with Some fine conversation and say our goodbyes. It’s been a wonderful and unique two weeks since we met up with Susan, Suzanne and János back in Beaune, and we’re sorry to see it come to an end - for now. Pretty sure we haven’t seen the last of this crowd.

Ride stats today: 14 miles, 200’; for the tour: 2,290 miles, 110,700’

Today's ride: 14 miles (23 km)
Total: 2,318 miles (3,730 km)

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Keith Adams"An American in Paris" was a brilliantly inspired choice for your video! It seemed obvious the moment I heard the opening notes, but somehow I doubt I'd have thought to use it. Thanks!
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Keith AdamsThanks, Keith. It wasn’t a conscious decision. I haven’t thought of or heard it for a long time, but it came to me while I was biking today and started whistling it. The mind is so strange.
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2 years ago

Carolyn van HoeveHi Scott & Rachael, very much enjoying your journal! Your glass half full, half empty entry made me laugh out loud the other day.
After your wonderful description and recommendation we've decided on the Via Rhona with the side trip to Annecy. We’ll do your journey in reverse and download some of your maps (heeding your warnings of the parts that weren’t ideal). I’m looking at an alternative to Yenne as you didn’t seem so enthusiastic about that, though there appear to be limited options in terms of breaking up the leg from Annecy to Crémieu.
Do you prefer RWGPS to Komoot? I notice you use Komoot for your hikes. We plan to fly to Paris and do a round trip from Lyon (renting bikes). I was thinking of going directly to Lyon when we land but reconsidering after your Paris entries and a reminder of what a wonderful city it is, despite having been there several times. Haven’t decided whether to train back from the Camargue or explore an alternate route back to Lyon. However it may be that we have limited time left once we get down there. So many choices!
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Carolyn van HoeveHey, good for you! Your recovery must be coming along well enough that you can plan a tour. I’ll look forward to reading about it here. If you haven’t locked yourself in yet and have the time you might consider stating biking in Dijon instead of Lyon and see southern Burgundy on the way. I probably wouldn’t stay in Yenne either, and there are a few other changes I’d make too now that I know the region better. I’d definitely make the detour up to Cremieu though, and I’d stay in the same BnB we did. I hope we make it back there someday.

We only use RideWithGPS. We’ll look at Kormoot from time to time for ideas, particularly when Rachael is looking for hiking ideas; but for our bike rides they’re all drawn on RideWithGPS.

When are you planning on going, and how much time do you have?
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2 years ago

Carolyn van HoeveThanks for that Scott. I've been working hard at the rehab and in another 3 months I think I'll be good to go! At the moment anticipating only about 21 days (in September) of actual riding so every day will count. The only thing we've locked in is the bike rental from Lyon. On your tour Crémieu, Annecy, Chambery & Grenoble sounded like your favourite stops. What else would you change?
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Carolyn van HoeveMaybe we should move this offline. Why don’t you email me at scoraclife at gmail dot com.
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2 years ago

Suzanne GibsonYou two are very adept at riding in Paris traffic! And a great video showing it!
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2 years ago