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Total distance: 1700 km (1060 mi)

Paris - Loire - Bretagne by bicycle

Thomas Driemeyer
2005-10-13 21:35:53

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PARIS TO ORLÉANS

There are various principles for organizing the streets of a city. Berlin is based on stars and rings, and American cities are usually rectangular grids. Paris is based on diverging bundles. This means that the wrong coice of a lane can put you in the wrong part of town with little chance to make a turn because everything is one-way. Traffic in Paris is murderous too. It is said that the only way for a pedestrian to cross a street in Paris is to be completely oblivious of the fact that there may be cars, because while they won't give you a break they will do their best not to kill you. Or so I hope.

Paris could be more beautiful than it already is if automobile traffic didn't have absolute priority. All those gorgeous buildings and palaces, separated by cracked sidewalks and endless expanses of asphalt, with few trees outside the carefully fenced-off parks. But if you ignore this, Paris is beautiful. I have often been there and have enjoyed it every time. I especially like the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Montmartre, despite the crowds of tourists, and those small side streets outside the busy center with their small cafés and shops. Plus all the usual tourist watering holes, like the Louvre, the Centre Pompidou, Notre Dame, Sacré Coeur, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, and various others. Forget the Champs Elysées. I'll spare you the usual pictures.

An excellent place to stay in Paris is the d'Artagnan youth hostel. After meeting at the Gare du Nord, the northern train station, my friend and I didn't stay long in Paris this time and rode south through the aforementioned asphalt jungle. Paris can very quickly lose its charm when you leave the center and enter the ``Banlieue'', the suburbs, but eventually we left Paris at the Porte d'Orléans, and rode south towards Orléans. After the difficulties crossing Paris we didn't quite make it all ...