Velib stations are everywhere. They light up bright green in the night with a few red lights here and there. Velib is a public bike rental service. People pay for a membership in periods of a single day, a week, a month, or a year and in return receive rentals of bicycles at these stations. Trips that 30min or less are free after that the costs start at 1€for a 1 hour 3€ for 1.5hrs and so on.
The system is simple. The membership holder types in their account# with their pin# and selects to unlock a bike. Once the the bike is unlocked they are free to ride it anywhere. Each bike is equipped with a 3 gears, a light, basket, locking device and flat metal fob that inserts into the bike station during check in. Once the bike is inserted into the station the light turns green and a single transaction is finished.
These stations require a credit card with a chip in order to purchase memberships so at first I was unable to get one. However my friend Dan was able to get a week membership for me for 5€. With this pass we were able to station hop in 30minute intervals to our destination. In reality it is very rare that one would need more than 30minutes to get from point a to point b in Paris.
There are some precautions to take before selecting a bike to check out. Dan gave me the checklist of things to look for. 1. Make sure the front and rear tires are inflated and not flat. 2. Make sure the chain is on the bike and actually rotates the wheel. 4. Check brakes. Even with these tips, I still got a few lemons, for example a bike that was stuck in one gear or a bike with a seat that didn't lock in place.
I did have a problem with my week pass though. I used the pass without incident the first 3 days or so. I went a day without using it. Then on the 5th day tried to rent a bike to get to the local train station to pick up tickets to Nice and ran into some complications. It said that I had already a bike checked out. My last check out was almost 2 days ago. According to the contract any bike that is lost is subject to a full 150€ charge. The problem with this situation is that I don't speak French, my card is registered under Dan's account meaning that he would be charged that amount. I immediately contacted and him and luckily the next he was able to confirm that there was an error in the system. None the less that was quite a scare to think that I just lost 150€ on a 5€ service.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Metro System
Paris' metro system runs until right around 1:30am or 2am. The last metro ride I've ever gotten was right around 1:45am. After that time, much like London, night buses take over. Here are some pictures of Paris' metro when its empty.
There's an eerie feeling about riding the subway when there's barely anyone there. Light flickers tend to have more emphasis and pure fact that I can see the entire length of a passageway is kind of creepy.
I almost got locked in a station when this picture was taken. As you can see a lot of the passages have already been gated. As I was exiting the night person had already locked up the exit gate.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Pari Roller
I first discovered Pari Roller by accident when Giang and I were heading out to the bars and happened to run into the event in action. The video at the end of this post shows our initial shock of the event. At first I threw out the idea of doing this since I was traveling and Giang was still semi-temporarily stationed in Paris. But eventually that mentality would change.
I hadn't roller bladed since Middle School, and living in Kansas City, there wasn't much opportunities. I decided to splurge and buy a pair of roller blades. Giang was in the same situation and decided to jump on board. We went to Decathlon, a sporting goods store. I bought the cheapest Decathlon branded skates that came to 40€. We roller bladed home from the store to help get the feel back. Once home I immediately took off my brakes.
Every Friday and Sunday, Sunday is for beginners, there is a huge roller blade Paris circuit with police escorts. The route is different every time, but the distance is roughly 30km. The start of the skate off is at 10pm and goes till 1am. That following Friday, Giang and I left early on skates towards the Montparnasse Bienvenüe metro stop where the gathering spot was located. On our way there we met up with several other skaters and followed them there.
There was one skater with a huge speaker box with four 6.5in speakers playing techno music. There were so many skaters it was hard to maneuver a lot of the time. I ended up skating near the speaker guy and these group of 3 skaters would keep passing us and cut us off, then slow down, and then pass us again, bumping us every time. We were so sick of it. By the fourth time I decided to bump check the guy that kept passing me into a tree. We never saw those guys again. Immediately afterwards I skated by some police officers. It was all good.
Giang ended up taking a fall. Luckily he was wearing knee, elbow and wrist pads. However he did end up scraping his chin, which is pretty amazing if you think about it. Nonetheless we continued on. The ride was amazing and the route led through a lot of the sights of Paris, such as the Eiffel Tower.
People skating in front raise their hands in situations when a skaters falls, there's rough concrete, or any situation where we all need to slow down or stop. Usually the sharp scent of burnt plastic warns you well a head of time as people grind their brakes or their wheels to stop. It looks like it is raining in the pictures below, but actually its just that my lens on my point and shoot is really dirty.
Here is a video summary of us discovering the event and then us participating in it and finally what went down.
I hadn't roller bladed since Middle School, and living in Kansas City, there wasn't much opportunities. I decided to splurge and buy a pair of roller blades. Giang was in the same situation and decided to jump on board. We went to Decathlon, a sporting goods store. I bought the cheapest Decathlon branded skates that came to 40€. We roller bladed home from the store to help get the feel back. Once home I immediately took off my brakes.
Every Friday and Sunday, Sunday is for beginners, there is a huge roller blade Paris circuit with police escorts. The route is different every time, but the distance is roughly 30km. The start of the skate off is at 10pm and goes till 1am. That following Friday, Giang and I left early on skates towards the Montparnasse Bienvenüe metro stop where the gathering spot was located. On our way there we met up with several other skaters and followed them there.
There was one skater with a huge speaker box with four 6.5in speakers playing techno music. There were so many skaters it was hard to maneuver a lot of the time. I ended up skating near the speaker guy and these group of 3 skaters would keep passing us and cut us off, then slow down, and then pass us again, bumping us every time. We were so sick of it. By the fourth time I decided to bump check the guy that kept passing me into a tree. We never saw those guys again. Immediately afterwards I skated by some police officers. It was all good.
Giang ended up taking a fall. Luckily he was wearing knee, elbow and wrist pads. However he did end up scraping his chin, which is pretty amazing if you think about it. Nonetheless we continued on. The ride was amazing and the route led through a lot of the sights of Paris, such as the Eiffel Tower.
People skating in front raise their hands in situations when a skaters falls, there's rough concrete, or any situation where we all need to slow down or stop. Usually the sharp scent of burnt plastic warns you well a head of time as people grind their brakes or their wheels to stop. It looks like it is raining in the pictures below, but actually its just that my lens on my point and shoot is really dirty.
Here is a video summary of us discovering the event and then us participating in it and finally what went down.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
La Défense
La Défense is an area located on the west side of Paris. From the Arc de Triomphe you can see the high rise offices and unique hollow rectangle building. This area houses the business district of Paris, including the offices of my ex company. I decided to take a trip out there and check it out for myself.
In the morning at 11am, keep in mind this is early for me, I take the red RER line out to the La Défense exit. As I am sitting on the train I look up and see that La Défense is one exit out of the Zone 1 Paris. I seem to remember that the week long pass I bought was only for zone one, hmmmm. Well the way it usually works within Paris is that I scan my ticket upon entering the metro and nothing happens when I exit. So, with this impeccable logic in mind I decide to continue on and not get off at the Charles de Gualle stop.
Well it turns out that there is a gate when you exit the La Défense. On top of that the gate requires that you swipe your ticket. I do and a red buzz goes off and the gates remain shut. I see several other people run into this problem as well. Suddenly a young girl reaches her hand over from the opposite side with a ticket in her hand. "Wow, how nice I think to my self" I just gesture to make sure that she is handing me the ticket for me to scan and she nods. A green light shows and the gates swing open. I walk through and hand the ticket back to the girl. At this point she has her hands open and is wanting something in return. I look around and suddenly realize that the entire gypsy family is doing this gig of passing tickets for money. I reach into my pocket and realize I have no change and the smallest bill I have is a 50.
She mumbles something in French and I return with the "I don't know" gesture and continue walking. The girl follows me and suddenly her two older brothers come following me as well demanding that I give them money. I respond with the "empty pockets no money" gesture which they don't buy. At this point the entire family of eight is following me around the exit area, which turns out to be a mall. I try to figure out where to go to exit. I finally walk over to an information booth and start talking to the desk person. I pretend that I am lost and point on my map to La Défense making sure I was in the right place, even though it is written everywhere in the station exit. Finally the family gives up and leaves.
Outside, I see office building and lots of artwork. I never found the offices of my ex corporation, but I was able to entertain myself by taking lot of pictures of interesting art. I ended up walking back to zone 1 and catching the metro back home.
If you look carefully into the distance, you can see the Arc de Triomphe in this picture.
Afterwards, I was told by a co-worker that the offices were located behind this structure.
In the morning at 11am, keep in mind this is early for me, I take the red RER line out to the La Défense exit. As I am sitting on the train I look up and see that La Défense is one exit out of the Zone 1 Paris. I seem to remember that the week long pass I bought was only for zone one, hmmmm. Well the way it usually works within Paris is that I scan my ticket upon entering the metro and nothing happens when I exit. So, with this impeccable logic in mind I decide to continue on and not get off at the Charles de Gualle stop.
Well it turns out that there is a gate when you exit the La Défense. On top of that the gate requires that you swipe your ticket. I do and a red buzz goes off and the gates remain shut. I see several other people run into this problem as well. Suddenly a young girl reaches her hand over from the opposite side with a ticket in her hand. "Wow, how nice I think to my self" I just gesture to make sure that she is handing me the ticket for me to scan and she nods. A green light shows and the gates swing open. I walk through and hand the ticket back to the girl. At this point she has her hands open and is wanting something in return. I look around and suddenly realize that the entire gypsy family is doing this gig of passing tickets for money. I reach into my pocket and realize I have no change and the smallest bill I have is a 50.
She mumbles something in French and I return with the "I don't know" gesture and continue walking. The girl follows me and suddenly her two older brothers come following me as well demanding that I give them money. I respond with the "empty pockets no money" gesture which they don't buy. At this point the entire family of eight is following me around the exit area, which turns out to be a mall. I try to figure out where to go to exit. I finally walk over to an information booth and start talking to the desk person. I pretend that I am lost and point on my map to La Défense making sure I was in the right place, even though it is written everywhere in the station exit. Finally the family gives up and leaves.
Outside, I see office building and lots of artwork. I never found the offices of my ex corporation, but I was able to entertain myself by taking lot of pictures of interesting art. I ended up walking back to zone 1 and catching the metro back home.
If you look carefully into the distance, you can see the Arc de Triomphe in this picture.
Afterwards, I was told by a co-worker that the offices were located behind this structure.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Paris @ Night
I am not a morning person. The night is so much more interesting. I bought a week long unlimited metro pass the following Monday. It's only worth it to buy it on Monday as the cycle always refreshes on Mondays. I began my adventures of exploring Paris every evening around 9:00 pm as the sun sets, the golden hours. Armed with a camera and no tripod, most of the shots were pretty difficult to achieve. I tried to take my Canon Rebel XT whenever possible with the two lenses: a Sigma 10-20mm and a Tamron 17-50mm lens, but most of the time I only had the Canon SD800IS. On my DSLR setup, 50mm is the longest zoom with 1.6 sensor crop factor equaling 80mm on a full frame, I was definitely missing the zoom aspect for many of the shots. Nonetheless here are some of the sights of Paris seen at night.
The Eiffel Tower
The Louvre @ Night
The Louvre was probably the place that had the most photographic potential. I would have been able to get more shots if I had a tripod.
The Arc de Triomphe @ Night
I reached the Arc de Triomphe around the golden hours of light. I was able to find several places to lean my camera against to take steady shots. There were tons of photographers with tripods around all taking advantage of the excellent light. I wonder how many other people had been here taking the exact same angle and exact same shot.
Sacré-Cœur Basilica
Sacré-Cœur Basilica is an old Roman Church that sits on top of a hill in Northern Paris. Because of its elevation it provides an excellent panoramic view of the city below.
In the evening, many people gather to sit on the steps going up to the Church, which in turn attracts many street performers. One evening George (an Aussie I met in London) and I were kickin' it on the stairs when, two groups of fire breathers started to perform. Each group performing for a different group of people at different levels of the stairs.
Mouglin Rouge
Nuff said
Food
I walked by some random shop that had an impressive display of foods.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe was built to honor the Napoleon Kings and marks the tomb of the unknown World War II soldier. It is located at the Place Charles de Gaulle in the intersection of several streets thus forming a roundabout. It can be seen in the distance from the streets that form the intersection. You can buy a ticket to go to the stop, but I decided that it was not worth it. Since I've been to the top of Eiffel already this shorter momentum will have to be a skip.
There were several groups gathering around street performers. This group of break dancers were able to attract so much attention that they started to block sidewalk traffic.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Musée de Louvre
The Musée de Louvre is actually located pretty close to Giang's apartment in Paris. It is one of the world's most visited museums and huge compared to anything I've seen thus far. I was able to go on Friday where the collection had free admission for young people, age 26 or less.
The Louvre is a C shaped structure. The a series of glass pyramids were created in the middle courtyard area. Originally many people opposed the idea of the new pyramids, however the artist promised that they would not disrupt the view of the building since he was going to make them completely out of glass. It turns out that the weight could not be supported with only glass so metal had to be added for support.
The entrance to the Louvre is through the main large glass pyramid in the middle. A set of spiraling and another set of straight staircases lead to the main lobby area. The main lobby is huge and in each direction leads to a different collection of works. There are entrance gates to each section, so I assume that if I wasn't getting the young person's free admission each section requires a different ticket.
Below are some of my favorite pieces of art.
Below is a picture from Napoleon's apartment. The first room was incredibly decorated and as I walked from room to room it became more and more extravagant. It makes the rooms on MTV Cribs look like the ghetto, well maybe not to that extreme, but you get the idea.
The interior of the Museum varied greatly between exhibits. Some had large open spaces while other areas were hallways.
There are several ceilings that are just incredible. I was able to get these shots with the 10mm ultrawide. Even though I had that lens, I was not able to capture the artwork in its entirety.
The Louvre is a C shaped structure. The a series of glass pyramids were created in the middle courtyard area. Originally many people opposed the idea of the new pyramids, however the artist promised that they would not disrupt the view of the building since he was going to make them completely out of glass. It turns out that the weight could not be supported with only glass so metal had to be added for support.
The entrance to the Louvre is through the main large glass pyramid in the middle. A set of spiraling and another set of straight staircases lead to the main lobby area. The main lobby is huge and in each direction leads to a different collection of works. There are entrance gates to each section, so I assume that if I wasn't getting the young person's free admission each section requires a different ticket.
Below are some of my favorite pieces of art.
Below is a picture from Napoleon's apartment. The first room was incredibly decorated and as I walked from room to room it became more and more extravagant. It makes the rooms on MTV Cribs look like the ghetto, well maybe not to that extreme, but you get the idea.
The interior of the Museum varied greatly between exhibits. Some had large open spaces while other areas were hallways.
There are several ceilings that are just incredible. I was able to get these shots with the 10mm ultrawide. Even though I had that lens, I was not able to capture the artwork in its entirety.
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