On the previous post, I mentioned my first experience riding a bike (Velib') in Paris. This week, I managed to go to or from the office on a bike. Successfully!
The first attempt took me 25 minutes with 5 minutes struggle on a climbing road. Puuiihh!!! Hard work! As you can imagine, as soon as I got off the bike, I felt like flying. My legs felt stiff and I was sweating like hell! That first experience was sufficient for not repeat the same mistake. Teh second time I took another way, a much flatter terrain. It saved me 5 minutes altogether.
Coming back from the office is much faster due to the descending road. 20 minutes. Yet, there is always a problem of finding an empty slot at the Velib' station near my place. On my first try, it took me 25 minutes to eventually find one, which is located 10 minutes walk from my place. On the same day, I realize it was partly due to some technical issues in some of the Velib' terminals, including the ones closest to my place. Hence, people could not rent out the bikes from there. On the second attempt, it was not too bad though. I only had to wait for 10 minutes before the next person took out a bike from the station which left out one empty slot for me.
Velib' is a new system in Paris. The similar one has successfully been implemented in Lyon. So, there are always things to learn from the Lyonnaise, particularly managing the circulation of the bikes, so people would not find it daunting when it comes to finding empty slots for returning their bikes.
Over this weekend I noticed a lot of people were using Velib' service. I guess the program is getting popular amongst the Parisiens. For me, it's like a dream comes true. Yes, it's true. I used to dream of riding a bike or strolling on a roller blade to go to or from my office! Now I have the opportunity to do it, although I have to be extra prudent with the traffic. The good thing is polution is not such a bad thing in Paris compared to, say, Jakarta. I love it when I can smell a fresh Parisien air in the morning and watch the Parisiens starting or finishing their days from my bike. I like it when the air smells coffee or croissants from the cafes or boulangeries along the streets. So typical Francaise. Someday, I will miss all these, for sure!
3 comments:
The bikes look kind of old-fashioned, don't they? No wonder your legs felt stiff... Or are you getting old? ;)
I would LOVE to bike, sensibly, to work. Unfortunately, I think it'll be too difficult to do around here, or even in most of big cities in Asia...
bleu, look who's talking! :-) Even you LOVE to do it too.
i'm a proud biker.... i have been cycling for more than five years now and absolutely love it.
someday we should build a kampung for bikers in Indonesia!!!!
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