Paris – on two wheels

Posted by jerry on June 15th, 2007 — Posted in Journal, Motorcycling, Travel

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.

motorbikes in  Paris

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

motobecane moped

motobecane moped

motobecane moped

motobecane moped

motobecane moped

This one was amazing – three wheels!

thee wheeled scooter

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

motobecane with trailer

And if you needed a big truck in a little street you could go for a vespa truck

Vespa three wheeled truck

But the traditional velo-solex is still popular – the bicycle with the engine on the front wheel – very French!

velo solex

velo solex

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

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