Paris Part 2: Biking Through The City

Biking around Paris was one of our top 5 favorite things we did on our entire trip.

I LOVE going on casual bike rides and, let me tell you, Paris is the place to do it!

It was such a great way to see all the sights and maximize the time we had.

Paris has a community bike-sharing system called Velib where you can grab a bike and pay to have it for the day or by 30 minute increments.

There are bike stations every 300 meters making it easy to drop off anywhere when you're done.

Many cities we visited had these bike-sharing systems, but you could only use them if you're a resident of that city :(

In Paris, however, anyone is free to use them!

Derek was in charge of figuring out the Velib meter. 

It was a little confusing at first, but once you get it it's really easy!

He was carrying our umbrella in his pouch pocket which is why it looks like he gained 20 lbs in his gut :)

Derek strapped on his GoPro while we were biking for a bit and it was so entertaining to watch the looks people gave him.

I thought he looked pretty dang cute!

While we were riding we kind of stumbled upon the beautiful Pont de l'Archevêché (or love lock bridge).

It was quite the sight to see the millions of locks covering the length of the bridge.

We bought our own tiny little lock to 'lock our love', as they say. 

And also so a little part of us would stay in Paris!

Side Note: I read last month that the Pont des Art (a nearby bridge also covered in locks) had a section of the fencing collapse! Scary!

I'm not sure what will happen but I believe the city is looking for alternatives.

We continued our bike tour and headed down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. 

We felt pretty fancy.

We passed by the beautiful Notre Dame cathedral which truly displays French Gothic architecture at its finest!

  

You really can't go anywhere in this city without seeing incredible (and historic) sights everywhere!

The Arc de Triomphe is a great example of this.

There are cars driving all around it just going about their day.

We ended our fun day with pastries, of course.

Calories justified by all of the biking we did!

We could have spent weeks--even months--in Paris alone.

So we decided not to say goodbye to Paris, but 'see you soon'!