A Parisian Alley Cat in a really ugly hat

Bikes, Hikes, Dikes, Likes

Paul and Dick kept talking about taking a bike ride together and on Easter Monday (a holiday in France) they did, escaping the house before most of the rest of the crew awoke. (Paul sleeps about as well as his father does.)

We took pictures of a few spots off the beaten path (at least the tourist beaten path; most paths in Paris are pretty well beaten by the locals.)

Swamped

We first headed east and found ourselves in an old (but now quite trendy) part of the city called the Marais. The word means swamp but the Knights Templar drained these long ago and the French kings built their court in an architecturally perfect spot called Place des Vosges which we rode around a few times.

Wall dust

For months Dick had been searching for the old city walls, most of which had been torn down long ago but a few remnants remained. By luck, we stumbled into two of these bits, one on the right bank below where we found the firemen playing soccer (we have the most fit firemen in the world):

This wall was built by Philippe Auguste who became king at age 15 in 1180 and ruled for 43 years (there being no video games in those days, teenage kings had to amuse themselves with governing.) The wall not only extended the city but served as a dike as well. Here's another piece of the wall about 1.5 miles to the south buried among the university buildings on the left bank on Rue Clovis:

Here's a view of the wall from the Seine taken long before our bike ride:

Kings don't have to clean their basements

Philippe Auguste found a weakness at the west end of his wall and so built a fortress there called the Louvre. Perhaps you've heard of it. It was pretty much torn down 350 years later by Francois I, the great French Renaissance king, to build something more to his liking. (Pieces of Philippe's fortress can still be seen in the basement of the Louvre today).

Time wounds all heels

Early that morning, cycling somewhat aimlessly around the Centre Pompidou center, we found this clock in the modern mode, probably to replace some clock that got torn down previously:

We arrived just before 9AM and so got to watch "the defender of time" strike the hour and kill the three animals which represent the sky, earth, and sea. Three times a day these animals strike back and kill the roboclock, but we didn't get to see that. (Unlike them, we didn't have time to kill -- OK, I couldn't resist it.) If you want more information than that (and can read French), click here:

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Alley Ways

After leaving the Pompidou area, we ventured further between the Marais and the river Seine on the right bank. Paul thought this alley was neat and insisted that we take his picture here:

Paul finds another tart

Our ride ended in a typical left bank square where we chained the bikes and hit a pastry shop where Paul found a strawberry tart to die for.

We once more concluded that the bike is the ultimate way to see Paris, especially on a holiday morning with most of the drivers still asleep.

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