Paris, the "city of lights".
It's a little more then 400 kilometers from where I live
but is has been a few years ago since I visited Paris and I never did it on my bike.
It's time to change that.
Today, Sunday, July 17, Bruno, my brother-in-law and I are going to Paris.
I leave home at five o'clock AM. It is still dark when I get the bike out of my garage and
my wife and children are all asleep.
Quietly I start the bike and drive away.... I'm on my way to Paris!
Ready to ride to Paris
First I drive to Antwerp. On the ring around Antwerp, the speedlimit is only 70 km/h
because of extensive rebuilding of the roads but after I passed the ring around Antwerp
I can drive to Brussels without a problem.
In the meantime, the sun has come up so it's light now and getting warmer.
Bruno lives in a small village just outside Brussels and at six o'clock I park my
BMW Cruiser in front of his house, next to his Ducati SS900.
At 6 AM I arrived at Bruno's house near Brussels
Before we leave, we have a cup of coffee and then it's off to Paris.
Just after we left Bruno's Ducati starts to cough and he pulls to the side of the road.
Mmmmm, not a good start. Fortunately it's only a minor problem and after a minute or two,
we are on the road again.
From the ring around Brussels, we get on the A2 to Mons. Then from Mons it is the A2
past Valenciennes and at eight o'clock we stop for gas at BP D'Havrincourt at Hermies.
Time for coffee and gas
We fill the tanks and get a coffee and then it's time to go on.
We are on the tollroad (Peage) and cruising at 130/140 km/h. At the end of the tollroad
we have to stop to pay the toll. When I slow down at the barrier to pay, my BMW stalls....
I start it and it stalls again. Mmmmm.
Last week, the bike started to idle irregular when it was hot after a trip in the Ardennen
but then I went to the BMW dealer and they adjusted a sensor in the injection system.
Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem.
After I payed the toll, I got it running again. Because of polution, the speedlimit was
90 km/h near Paris and now the bike cooled a bit and at the next stop, it idles normally.
We wanted to fill our tanks before we enter Paris but at the gasstaion we want to get
gas, some people are waving us and other drivers away. Maybe they ran out of gas......
We stop at the parking behind the gasstation to check the map of Paris for the best way
to get to our first destination, the Arc de Triomphe at the Avenue des Champs Elysees.
I ask Bruno to ride in front because he, as a Belgian, speeks French so it's easier for
him to read roadsigns or ask for directions.
At the "Porte deLaChapelle" we leave the A1 and enter the Paris citystreets. We ride on
a few "boulevards" to "Porte Maillot" and then we drive to the "Place Charles de Gaulle"
and the Arc de Triomphe.
We are in Paris! The Arc de Triomphe
We park our bikes on the sidewalk of the "Avenue des Champs Elysees" and take a few
pictures. Then we hear a "BANG" behind us..... A car that was parked in a sidestreet
was not on it's parking break and without a driver, it ran into a shopwindow.....
Nobody seems to care so why should we so we make a few more pictures and get on our
bikes again.
Cars are passing left and right and when I think I'm in the far right lane and
want to go to the right, I almost get hit by a driver that was trying to squeeze his
car between me and the sidewalk... OK, switch driver settings to maniac mode and
adjust to Paris drivingstyle... :-)
From the "Place de la Concorde" we follow the bank of the Seine on the "Avenue de
New York" until we cross the "Place de l'Alma" were we cross the "Pont de l'Alma"
On the "Pont de l'Alma" over the Seine
From the bridge, we have a nice view on the Seine, the ships sailing under the bridges
and the waterfront with very nice facades on one side and the Eiffeltower on the other
side. Very nice!
The Eiffel tower
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We check our map and choose to ride the "Avenue Rapp" to the "Place Jacques Rueff" in
the middle of the park that's in front of the Eiffel tower.
We park the bikes on the sidewalk and at a souvenir stand, I buy some miniature towers
for my children and a "Paris"patch for my vest.
The Eiffeltower was build in 1889 by Gustave Eiffel and is 300 meters high. It was build
for the World Exhibition and was a unique masterpiece of steel engineering in its time.
Now we parked our Italian and German masterpieces of steel engineering in front of this
French construction to make a true European picture :-)
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It's very nice here. It's warm now but because it is still Sunday morning, it is not to
crowded and we relax a bit and have a bottle of fruitjuice and an apple and enjoy the view.
Here I pose behind my BMW, in front of the Eiffel tower
French engineering, mirrored in German chrome
Then we decide it's time to go on and try to find the Notre Dame so we put our helmets on
start the bikes and jump into the Paris traffic again.
We drive back to the Seine and on the "Quai Branly" until we stop at the square in front
of the "Pont des Invalides". Another nice place to get some digital memories.
Paris is a beautiful town
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