Michael Berner

I was all the way across town off Rue de Sevres at Le Bon Marche after 6 hours or hiking around Paris and realized it was about to time to head home.  However, home happens to be a 45 minute walk to the Bastille.  With the desire to avoid cabs due to cost and subway due to lack of city viewing, I jumped on a local bike that are so ubiquitous around Paris and was off.  

I’m not kidding when I say this was the best decision I’ve made thus far in this city.

Velib as its called has over 1,200 bike stations around Paris and 20k bikes.  You are never more then a block or two from a station which makes it unbelievably convenient. Even more so, it costs next to nothing at €1.70 a day and about €1 per hour.

NYC is poised to get a similar system by next summer.  For the cost, convenience, ubiquitous supply, and sheer fun of it, I will be first in line to take advantage.