In mijn jonge jaren reed ik elke dag  zo'n 14 km naar school op en neer.
Dus zodra ik 16 werd kocht ik een brommer en liet de fiets meteen in de steek.
Daarna kwamen de auto's en een leven van werken en een gezin opbouwen.
Zo'n 10 jaar geleden begonnen weer te fietsen en schaftten ons ieder een Gazelle mountainbike aan.
We wonen vrij centraal, en een kilometer verderop kun je al de modder in.
Omdat we alle kanten op kunnen gingen we steeds meer en meer fietsen.
Ook begon ik met het restaureren van race fietsen en de licht gewicht race fietsen gebruiken we om verder en verder te kunnen ,
soms zelfs om 70 km verderop koffie te drinken.

We zijn altijd al gek geweest op parijs;dus stelde mijn vrouw Jacqueline voor om daar eens te gaan fietsen.
In 2003 zijn we voor het eerst naar Parijs geweest om daar alles te bekijken op de fiets.
We hebben een Formula 1 hotel geboekt aan de noord kant van de stad maar wel lekker dicht bij het centrum.
Zo'n Formula 1 hotel is goedkoop, schoon en ze zeuren niet als je 2 fietsen mee neemt in de lift en op je kaner stalt.
Je zet ze op je kamer en hebt nog net wat ruimte over om tv te kijken.

In the Netherlands you always have to look out for cars and trucks in the busy streets and hope they will not hit you.
We expected that Paris would be hell for people on a bike, but it was a total surprise how the weird driving residents of Paris reacted to two
Dutch people on bright orange bikes.
When there is no lane for the bikes you are allowed to ride on the bus lane and he is not allowed to overtake.
There is a safe feeling riding bikes in the city of Paris, and we would promote everyone to do it.
If you visit Paris by Metro you will be 70% of the time under the ground, and most stations are not very nice to look at.
Driving in a car is hell, and the driver will not see anything of Paris.
On the other hand with a bike, you can see things what other people do not see, the smaller and not so famous monuments in the city
of which there are a lot.
For eating it is simple to get away from the busy and expensive main streets and look for the more local restaurants and small diners.

 

Paris is built on five hills and for two mid aged Dutch from the flat-lands it is like riding on Alpe d’huez, If you go to the Sacré-Coeur and
half way you feel the muscles weaken and the last part is like dying, but if you enter the last corner and see the large sugar colored building
it is like a miracle and you forget the pain in an instant.
It gets even better when you take two streets more and arrive at Place Pigalle for a nice glass of wine and a famous salad niÇoise.
We always use hydraulic brakes on our mountain-bikes because on the long way down the hills, normal V-brakes are not up to the job
while the Magura Disks and HS33 do the job.

We always use the mountain-bikes in Paris because the roads in Paris are not all very good and there is still a lot of bad pavements,
like the roads in the Paris–Roubain race.
The whole city of Paris is full of monuments and statues that are often not seen, but with the bike you can see them all
and take your time to look at them.  



While I am writing this piece we have already been 7 times to Paris and still ride there with our bikes.
Every time we see new things and places like the Andre Citroen Park on the grounds of the old Citroen factory.
There are a small number of bike stores in Paris, and the most of them can be found on Rue Victor Hugo, there is also
the famous store of Alex Singer.
If you want to ride a bike in Paris you can rent bikes on several places in the city now.
You can find some addresses on the web these days.
My wife and I recommend everybody to make a biking trip in Paris and we will be happy to recommend addresses and places of interest by mail.
We hope that more people can enjoy to ride a bike in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.