See Paris for pennies on a Velib bike

How cool is this: cruising around City Of Light on a bicycle you can rent for a song.

TRAVEL ADVISORY | The next time I visit Paris (in my dreams!), I’m going to ride a bicycle just like the one Ross Bonetti is sitting on in this picture. Ross, who owns LivingSpace Interiors in Vancouver and travels to Paris twice a year to attend the Maison et Objet trade show, has always crisscrossed the city by taxi or metro—until a year ago September when he started renting bicycles. Now he can’t imagine getting around the city on anything but a two-wheeler.

The bikes Ross rents are part of the super cheap Velib system set up by city officials.The Velib bicycle program operates bicycle stations throughout the city, most only a few blocks apart. It’s dead simple: you pick up a bike at any station you choose and then drop it off at any other one no more than 30 minutes later, which insures bikes are kept in rotation. The rental bikes themselves are three-speed unisex models, and Ross, a serious cyclist in Vancouver, says they are generally in good condition (you do need to preview them, however)—a relief to anyone following reports of the problems Paris has had with bike vandals.

The fee to use Velib bikes is one euro a day ($1.37 Canadian) for an unlimited number of rides, and you can purchase a rental subscription for one day or more with your credit card (check this because they don’t accept all credit cards: Ross’s CIBC Visa worked; so does RBC Avion Visa) at the rental terminal attached to each station.

But what about the traffic, the cobbled streets—and aren’t Parisian drivers erratic? “Of course you have to watch out, but it really is pretty safe,” Ross says. “In Paris, drivers actually move over when they can see you are trying to squeeze between cars. That’s not going to happen in Vancouver. Bikes and scooters are legitimate transportation there. They move in front of the cars at intersections and all take off together en masse.”

Ross says that when you travel by taxi or metro, you never learn how to get around the city or experience it up close and personal. Plus, on a bike you can cover ground quickly. “It might take you 45 minutes to walk back to your hotel from a restaurant, but that same trip could take 15 minutes—and be way more fun—on a bike.”—C. Rule

To learn more about the Velib bike rental program, visit the official site www.velib.paris.fr.

Photo: Courtesy Ross Bonetti, www.livingspace.com