Velib

It seemed so easy. Swipe the American Express and go. There was nothing about daily subscriptions, secret codes and pin numbers. After several minutes of looking befuddled and standing in front of the dispenser with my decoder in hand i asked a handsome french man for some help. Bien sur. He explained that having secured the decoder, i then needed to enter the subscription number, followed by the pin number, followed by the object number. In french the directions sounded like Mary Poppins' tune--a spoonful of sugar to help the numbers get punched in. Y viola i was off--on my Velib that is.

Paris has one of the most progressive public bike systems in the world with thousands of bikes available to anyone who has a credit card or registers with the transportation department. For 1 euro a day or 29 euros for the year you are allowed to rent the bicycles for an unlimited number of trips for the day (or year). The first half hour is free and the next half hour is 1 euro and the next half hour is another euro. The idea is to share the bikes, not hog them. For example you can ride a bike for four hours and it wouldn't cost you a thing as long as every half hour you pop into one of the bike stations, park your bike, do the decoding dance and retrieve another bike. But hog the bike and gets expensive fast. Bicycle stations are at a maximum of 300 meters from each other throughout the city. In theory this should make it very easy to return and retrieve. What i discovered was that there are definitely popular destinations. Near the Jardin des Plantes, i cycled past three stations all full. Finely i stopped and asked a man working on the bicycle ticket dispensers, "Where can i return the bike?" in french and he actually understood me--yippee! He suggested a few possibilities and then i noticed a big map on the dispenser that showed all of the nearby stations. It sort of turned into a treasure hunt--where to find a bike parking? Eventually i found one and gratefully dismounted my wheels. Legs shaking.

Did i mention that the Paris bikes are built like tanks which means you need legs like cannons to propel them forward. My popsicle stick legs were no match for the stop and go, avoid the bus, avoid the pedestrian, circle the cars, trip. And for the number of bicycles in the city there is a paucity of designated bike lanes. I'm sure i broke every rule because i rode in the bus lanes, on the sidewalks, against traffic on a one way street, through red lights (what? that little signal on the side of the road means me?) but no one seemed to mind. I am sure there is a sensibility to the lay out of the traffic in Paris but i am afraid you might need a french gene to understand. For now I'm holding off on that annual pass.