Paris – on two wheels
Having a French moped myself, I thought it would be fun to go looking for the current mopeds of Paris. In a city that resembles an ad for Smart cars, in which motorbikes and scooters of various descriptions park with impunity on pavements or indeed anywhere they can squeeze in, two wheel travel is widely accepted as the norm.
In such a culture there are intriguing variations on a theme – scooters with a roof such as those from BMW and Renault, three-wheeled scooters, and more traditional mopeds.
taking the last first, I saw quite a number of Motobecanes obviously still going hard, like these ones
This one was amazing – three wheels!
I wondered how they went around corners. Suddenly I had my opportunity as this one pulled away while I had my camera in hand.
Others clearly were workhorses in more ways than one
And if you needed a big truck in a little street you could go for a vespa truck
But the traditional velo-solex is still popular – the bicycle with the engine on the front wheel – very French!
So the peds still swarm in Paris – even the police ride Peugot mopeds around the cobbled back streets!
Tomorrow I’ll look at Paris architecture 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
