{"id":1871,"date":"2009-01-14T09:38:18","date_gmt":"2009-01-14T14:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145696.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2009-01-14T09:38:18","modified_gmt":"2009-01-14T14:38:18","slug":"sexy-green-paris-brake-lights-big-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/articles\/sexy-green-paris-brake-lights-big-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexy Green Paris: Brake Lights, Big City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"V\u00e9lib'<\/a>\u00a0What’s up with all those bikes?<\/h3>\n

If you’ve been to Paris in the last year and a half and you didn’t spend your entire visit slugging back\u00a0C\u00f4tes du Rh\u00f4ne<\/a>\u00a0and camembert, you might remember having seen a whole lot of bikes. Like, loads and loads<\/em> of them. Huge, industrial looking, cumbersome, with standard metal baskets? These curious contraptions belong to a new form of transportation known as the V\u00e9lib<\/a>. A combination of “v\u00e9lo” (bike), and “libert\u00e9”, (freedom), the V\u00e9lib offers tourists and locals just that: bikes and freedom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Green Way to see Paris<\/h3>\n

As long as you have a credit card or an ATM card (is anyone still using traveler’s checks these days?) you can rent a bike for a day, a week, even for a year! The way it works is this: \u00a0[social_buttons]\u00a0The city has installed a ton of bike stations (called “bacs”) throughout Paris and outlying suburbs with 12 to 30 bikes at each station. Once you choose a bike (look for flat tires, broken chains and any other flaws, because once you rent one, you’re stuck with it for 15 minutes!), you’ll find a little machine where you can rent the bike with your aforementioned credit card. The first time you rent a V\u00e9lib’, the machine will take out a deposit of 150 euros from your account, which you’ll get back once you return the bike. This keeps\u00a0ne’er’-do-well’s from stealing the darn thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paris by bike<\/h3>\n

The bikes cost nothing for the first 30 minutes, 1 euro for the second 30 minutes, and onwards and upwards, if you’re pulling a Lance Armstrong. Once you’ve rented your bike, you can traverse Paris using bike paths recently built for this purpose. You’ll have to make good use of your bicycle bell, though: Parisians and tourists just love <\/em>strolling in the bike lane, oblivious to the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Easy, fast, and human<\/h3>\n

Doesn’t it feel good<\/em> to be above ground? Is it time for a hot chocolate? Just keep your eyes open for a bicycle station (there are 1,451 in the city!), push your bicycle back into the terminal, wait for the flashing green light, and voil\u00e0, <\/em>you’re done! Make sure to spend at least 15 minutes drinking that hot cocoa- this is the minimum amount of time you have to wait between each rental. Why? To make sure that no one is hogging all the bikes!<\/p>\n

V\u00e9lib, je t’aime!<\/h3>\n

I live in Paris and I think this is one of the most innovative things to happen here since the Pyramid was built in front of the Louvre<\/a>. So many people come through Paris with only days to see the city- why spend your precious time underground when you can view Paris on wheels<\/a>?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Sarah Sosiak<\/a> under a Creative Commons License<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0What’s up with all those bikes? If you’ve been to Paris in the last year and a half and you didn’t spend your entire visit slugging back\u00a0C\u00f4tes du Rh\u00f4ne\u00a0and camembert, you might remember having seen a whole lot of bikes. Like, loads and loads of them. Huge, industrial looking, cumbersome, with standard metal baskets? These […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[345],"tags":[3126,3127,3128,3129,3130,3131,3132],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/velib.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelgoodstyle.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}