,On Sunday, Paris had it's first "Journée sans voitures" which means day without cars. This didn't apply to the entire city, but certain areas where restricted to only taxis and buses and some areas vehicles were banned entirely. Dad and I decided to start the day in the east of Paris and then cycle all the way along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower, making the most of the limited number of cars on the roads. We began down towards Quai de la Gare and the national library which is hyper cool, stark modern building which features this huge urban forest right in the middle of it. It felt very futuristic, especially on such a bright clear day. (The weather, by the way, has been absolutely amazing these past few days!) From here we cycled along the edge of the Seine all the way to Saint Germain where we stopped for a spot of lunch in famous Les Deux Magots. I walk past this everyday on the way to/from uni and I can see everyone enjoying these amazing lunches so it was really nice that I finally got to try it with Dad. It might be just about the most expensive brasserie ever (an Orangina for example is €6.50) but it was delicious and you pay for the name, the street-side sunshine spot, the traditional french service. Following a delicious lunch we got back on our Velibs and headed towards the Champs- Élysées. This was completely closed off to any vehicles and I have never ever seen anything like it. The whole of Paris seemed to have descended on the Champs-Élysées on bike, foot, skateboard, rollerblades.. it was amazing! I really think they should do this more often because it became so much more than just a long street with cars and people could really enjoy and appreciate it. I tried to take some photos of the scale of people there but it doesn't come across. This BBC news article has some video footage which gives you an idea of what it was like: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34374125 So if there was a vote for this day to happen every week then I would definitely be voting yes. It's so nice to be on the roads and cycling without having to worry about angry french drivers beeping at you and wanting to run you over every 5 minutes!
Below is a photo of me being french and on a bike. All in all a really great way to spend a perfectly sunny Sunday!
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