Paris, gay but not that gay.

Train rides, always tops.

Arriving in the outskirts of Paris, you can tell when you're close, as the traffic starts to stop. Filthy black concrete beams are above but that's the autoroute. One of the mayoral candidates said the answer to pollution is to have cars that do 2-3l/100km, and ruled out congestion tolls to enter the city, so it's all just pie in the sky. It's a position of strictly doing nothing. So the result is a thick brown/grey Hong Kong fog.

We walked around a little bit, and found a little Easter show type ride. Cars stopped for us when we crossed the road. The bread shop lady said, we hope we see you again tomorrow! Something's changed with this place!

Cargo bike!! HEAPS of fun. 

The next day we finally fulfilled my dream of hiring a cargo bike. Me and the boys were super excited. They sang away, to the appreciation of passers by. 

There 's a lot of new bike paths around. The path down to the river is one of the best. 

The boys didn't care much for it.

Rolling along the river, there's no way to get a 40kg bike up a staircase, so we lock up and walk up to the Eiffel Tower.

Lunch is nice. The place seems full of locals, so think we did ok.

They say a traveller doesn't know where he's going, and a tourist doesn't know where he's been. Neither is clear today.

We get to the Champs Elysees. It's the most important street in the city. I'm not big on cars, and this one has 8 lanes of them. We continue on the footpath. It's an obstacle course of newspaper kiosks, postcard stands, metro entrances, and tourists.

Clément checks out the biggest roundabout here.

The Arc de Triomphe is a big roundabout. In the middle lies the unknown soldier, who gave his life for the country. Cars rev, honk, make noise and stink up the place. They should give this person some peace!

Along the river is really pleasant, a properly separated path and heaps of trees. One guy rings his bell furiously as we stopped on the path to check the map. Get a life!

A detour in the Tuileries Garden has lovely gravel paths in the greenery. The gardens are another highlight surrounded by georgeous stone buildings. There's a big kids in there too.

At 3 o'clock the traffic is already blocking up the roads. Not sure how people can do it every day.

Then a group of 40 odd schoolkids cheer us as me and the boys roll past. Around Notre Dame a Japanese couple, and others, take our photo. It's a nice quiet spot, and pretty. Later, we have a stop to look at the old Orient Express. It would have been a dream to take a trip on that thing.

Mmmmm, fancy gelato, yum.

In the sixth arondissement, the roads are all 20km/h, narrow and low traffic. A gelato stop tops off the feeling that we finally found my idea of cycle heaven. This has to be one of the most beautiful parts of the city.

This city was a lot better later in the day.

It's followed by a playground stop. It's a large park surrounded by homes, and quiet. The only noise is kids yelling and laughing. The paths back to the bikeshop from here are excellent.

There's not many cyclists yet for a city of 10 million. The city is going be fantastic once they put in a few more good paths, and connect them up.