Bicycling

Its been a while since I did any serious bicycling (because of the motorcycle), but I still love bicycles. When I worked in The Netherlands I made a point of buying standard Dutch bicycles and riding every day to and from work. Amsterdam is without doubt the best city in the world to ride in.

My best Dutch bicycle

The bike on the left is the best of the bikes I had in The Netherlands. It has working lights (as required by Dutch Law), a generator, one speed transmission with coaster brake, and a working bell which later got stolen. The wheels are larger (28") than American bikes, and so even though it only had one gear it could fly. I used to jump this baby over the tram tracks and up onto the concrete barriers... Ride Amsterdam if you can.

Riding Through France

In 1992 I took a wonderful vacation and spent 4 weeks riding through the French countryside and in Paris, following the Tour de France. We did over 600 miles on that trip, including riding in the streets of Paris. Without a doubt I was the skinniest I've ever been when I got back from that trip.

I rode a Bottecchia with low-end Campagnolo parts, fully loaded with panniers and not enough water bottles. My riding partner Marc Filipelli and I started in Paris, and we almost didn't leave the city that day because it was just so beautiful. Imagine riding in the Paris streets when you're used to New York City...

Starting out in Paris

We did make it out of Paris though, and rode straight south on our way to Orleans and La Souterraine. That first day was pretty tough though -- at one point I had us riding right on to a major highway because I didn't understand what the Autoroutes were!

Because we left the city we avoided the tourists and instead found ourselves riding through French farm country, where the people were very friendly but spoke absolutely no English. I had taken time to learn some basic French though, and after my initial fear and confusion with speaking a foreign langauge I got so I could figure out where we were going, how to get a room for the night, how to shop and order meals in the restaurants and how to get around in general.

Check this out -- a French Yield sign looks the same as a US one, its a yellow triangle. But it says "Vous n'avez pas la prioritié"!

In fact, I think having to speak only French paid off later when I was again in Paris, because I wasn't afraid to use it and Parisians really hate it if you try to speak English to them all the time. But I also have to say I didn't run into any of the fabled French Snobbery, in fact everyone in Paris was really nice to me. Perhaps because I spoke French?

Stephanié et la famille a table

The next 3 days we rode through some very pretty countryside to Orleans, where we hopped a train to La Souterraine and stayed with Stephanié Nataf and her friends at her father's beautiful country house. Her father is Victor Lanoux, a famous French actor who is considered to be a National Treasure. He actually had a festival on his property during one of the days we were there, complete with band, food, tons of people and contests swimming in his small pond. Thanks Victor, you're really cool!

BTW, that's Stephanié on the left in the hat -- I know its not a good picture...

After 2 days rest at La Souterraine, we caught up with the Tour as it came through Mont Lucon. The Tour that year followed a big circle back to Paris, and the only way we could keep up with them was to continually cut the arcs inside their course. Still, we saw several stage starts and finishes, and were amazed at the atmosphere. It felt more like a rock concert than a sporting event, with giant multi-screen TV displays, people crowding the sides of the road and loud music being blasted from the offical stands.

I don't know how we did it, those guys are really fast, and they averaged 150 miles per day, while we were lucky to get 80 in with our packs carry 40 pounds of clothes, food, maps, cameras, tools, and other miscellaneous crap. Still, after having watched the Tour for years on TV, it was really cool to stand right there and watch these guys go by.

The Tour's Rock Atmosphere

After we made it back to Paris, we spent another 10 days seeing the sights and riding through the mean streets. Paris is a wonderful city, but not very bicycle-friendly, and the drivers are all nuts. Still, we had a great time riding Les Rues and I have to say its still not as bad as New York City.