When I was a young boy I had to ride my bike, every day to school, 7 miles and back again.
So, the moment I was 16, I bought a mini-bike and as soon as possible abandoned the bicycle.
Then came the cars, and a life of working and starting a family.
About 10 years ago we started to ride bikes again, first buying a Gazelle mountain-bike.
We live very close to the countryside and it is just a 1-mile drive to feel the mud under the tyres.
We found our freedom again on the bike and started to drive it more and more.
I started restoring old racing-bikes, and we would use the lightweight models to ride and went further away from home, 
sometimes even to drink coffee at my fathers house 70 miles away.

We have always had a crush on Paris; and Jacqueline, my wife, suggested to have a ride on the bikes in the city of Paris.
In 2003 we went for the first time to Paris to see it this time on the bicycles.
We booked a Formula 1 hotel at the North side of Paris, because it is the closest one near the town center.
Formula 1 hotel is cheap, clean and they don’t make a fuss if you take 2 bicycles in the elevator to your room on the seventh floor.
You can toss the bikes on the third bed and still move in the room and watch television on the leftover double bed.

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.