Tour de Paris

My legs are pretty numb and useless right now. The top half of me, though, is very excited to have a new used-bicycle! (Skip to the picture on the bottom if you are as excited to see it as I am…)

Since the weather has turned so sweet and warm, I have been stricken with bike fever, and really coveting all the cyclists swarming the city. The fever turned into sickness when I found out that used bikes are even more expensive than new ones. Vintage is hot. Thanks to Craig’s List Paris I found some guys who sell some cheap bikes out of some garage. A shady garage in the bottom level of a nondescript parking lot. I wondered if I would make it out of there with my life, let alone a bicycle. But the salesman was very straight, extracted 3 from his stash that were in my price range. The choice was made by fate: I live near the neighborhood of Alesia and I chose the “Alizée” model. (Fate, and that choices #2 and #3 had either weak breaks or a missing tire.)

Riding back to lab after the transaction rather than walking was most satisfying. Today after lab, I brought Alizée home. This entailed going from the very north to the very south of Paris, in a Tour de Paris that even Lance Armstrong should not snub. (Travel time=2 hr:15 min:59 sec. In the same amount of time, Lance could probably be in Belgium.) The trip was every bit as exciting as I thought biking here would be. It was like working out a geographical jigsaw puzzle, riding by and recognizing different spots and piecing them together. From a pedestrian’s perspective, I doubt I looked so exciting. French “femmes au vélo” always look impossibly chic. I am just hoping to get away without needing a helmut and kneepads!


The picture does Alizée a bit more justice than she deserves. She is actually not shiny, but pretty dirty and rusty. Aaah!, but I still think she’s the prettiest in the pile outside my building.