A Night Ride And A Long Lunch

Today I didn't ride.  I didn't go to any museums.  I have what are, perhaps, reasons or excuses--depending on your point of view--for both.

One is that after I wrote yesterday's post, I took a late night ride into the wee hours of morning

and through a rainstorm I should have seen coming. Clouds thickened and skies darkened even before night fell; I guess I was fooled when hours passed and it hadn't yet begin to rain. 

I had just pedaled up the hill of Montmarte and was starting my descent of the Rue Ronsard when the la deluge a commence.

I zigged and zagged down the Right Bank streets and across the Pont de la Concorde faster than Lindsey Vonn on the slalom at Val d'Isere.  Then I dodged cars picking up and dropping off very fashionable (even by Paris standards) at cafes and nightclubs in the Latin Quarter.  By the time I got back to my apartment, I was soaked and giddy.  Despite the very late hour, it took me about an hour to fall asleep. 

Getting back so late from a bike ride meant, of course, that I woke up late.  It was probably just as well:  If I'd awakened earlier, I probably would have tried to do some shopping, drop into a gallery--or take another bike ride--before a lunch date with a friend I hadn't seen in eleven years. 

Even though dejeuner translates as "lunch", those two words don't mean remotely the same thing.  The French are known for long lunches during the week.  But on a Saturday that happens to be a fete nationale (L'assumption), dejeuner can fill any and all of the hours between the morning coffee and sundown.  At least, that we somehow managed to do that:  After we finished our crepes, we walked from the Montparnasse to St. Germain des Pres and St. Michel, crossing the bridge to l'Ile de la Cite (where the Notre-Dame Cathedral and Sainte Chapelle are located) into Beauborg and le Marais--stopping a couple of times along the way for coffee.

The walk was, I felt, as much a part of "lunch" as the crepes and coffee.  I wouldn't mind another lunch like it with Jay, my old friend.  I just hope I won't have to wait another eleven years for it.
 

The Easiest Way To Get A Date In Paris

When I was living as a guy named Nick, I never had an easier time getting dates than when I was teaching in a language institute near the United Nations.  My pupils included tourists, business people, students who were trying to improve their English skills so they could attend American colleges and universities and young Japanese women from wealthy families who sent them to New York for the summer.  It didn't matter whether I was actually looking for a date; at the end of every week I had at least one.  

I was, at best, an average-looking guy, though I was in really good shape from cycling. I never thought I was particularly charming, intriguing or even intelligent.  Could teaching English really be that much of a turn-on?

Whatever the answer might be to that question, I believe that, today, I just may have found the easiest way to get a date now that I am a woman of, shall we say, "a certain age".  Within a span of a few minutes, three different men offered themselves to me.  Now, you might say that it's because I'm in Paris and some would argue that the true "national sport" of French men isn't cycling or football, but flirtation.  I wouldn't disagree.

Actually, I think it had to do with other things. One is the specific location in Paris.  Yes, I was on the Left Bank--but not of the Seine. Rather, it was the starboard side, a.k.a. le Quai de Jemmapes, of the City of Light's other major--and, to me, equally romantic--body of water:   the Canal Saint Martin, which connects the Seine with the Marne via the Canal de l'Ourcq.

I have always enjoyed spending time there.  Once I even took a barge ride. Today, though, on a nearly perfect Parisian summer afternoon, I kicked off my shoes and sat with my feet dangling over the water.  I wasn't trying to attract attention: I was just enjoying the light that softens the green tint of the water and the leaves flickering in the breeze.   But I wasn't the only female swinging my legs over the water--and I certainly wasn't the most attractive.  And although my sandals are, if I say so myself, kinda cute, I wear them because they're comfortable.  I couldn't understand why one of the men who asked me on a date was staring at them and said they were "sexy."

Hey...I just realized what was attracting their attention.  It was...the bike.

I'd parked it beside me while I was drinking some Badoit and munching on a "pumpkin" tomato I found in a market along the way.

That tomato was really good but I'm not sure that anyone was paying attention to me while I ate it.  Usually, guys watch girls when they're eating cherries or strawberries or other things I won't mention.  I don't recall a woman eating a tomato in an image that's supposed to titillate men or lesbians. (Then again, I haven't looked at a lot of such images.  Really!) 

So, really, what else could have gotten three guys to ask me on dates in a few minutes but the bike?

Perhaps I should tell that to Paris Bike Tour, from whom I rented the bike. 

Then again, bikes always attract attention.  Just take a look at this

hung on a building across the street from the Picasso Museum.    Or this, in the window of a lighting shop on the Boulevard Raspail:

Flick off the switch on that one and it's really "lights out"!

Sur Les Paves Et Dans Les Jardins...

Coline responded to the post I wrote yesterday with the observation of the day:  "Those look like Paris cobblestones".

Paris cobblestones indeed look different from the ones in New York or other cities--including South Bend, Indiana. (Do they have cobblestones there?) or any other place that has a Notre Dame in it.  That means only one thing...

No, I'm not in South Bend. I am Lutece, the City of Light, thanks to a generous late birthday gift. Would you pass up such a thing?

Anyway, I haven't done any bike riding yet on this trip.  I plan to rent a bike tomorrow, but I don't think I'm going to use Velib for the same reasons I don't use Citibike.  (Well, OK, I have one other reason not to use Citibike:  I have bikes in NYC.)  For one, I don't want to be bound by time constraints such as having to return the bike within 45 minutes or whatever it is.  For another, I'm just not comfortable putting my bank card in one of those machines and having it place a hold on some of my money.  And, finally, the rental shops probably have bikes I'd like better than the ones in Velib, Citibike or just about any other bike share program.


In walking toward the Luxembourg Gardens, I saw a couple of bikes with details we rarely, if ever, see in the States:

I would love to see how that striping was done.  It lends even more definition to the "hammered" pattern in the fenders.  Can you imagine if Velo Orange or Honjo offered it as an option.  Of course, it would cost a lot of money for them to match--as best they could--the finish on the frame. Then again, I guess it wouldn't have to match:  Black stripes would go with a lot of bikes, and other combinations (e.g., red stripes for a blue bike, green for an orange frame or purple with pink) could be done.

All right--enough about accessorizing bikes.  I'm in Paris, for crying out loud.  Hmm...Maybe that's not such an inappropriate topic to discuss while I'm here. Accessories, bikes and Paris:  It all works together.

Now here's something almost none of you have seen:

 

Ok, the fenders (in the photo preceding this one) are cool enough.  But look at the chain guard.  And the chainstay-mounted rear derailleur.  I suspect it's a Huret:  Based on my admittedly- limited experience with such derailleurs, I don't think it's a Nivex.

But the best part is the lugwork, which would be par for the work of the best custom builders.  Oh, wait...

it is the work of an old master: Oscar Egg.  It's truly amazing to see it on a utilitarian city bike parked on a street in Beauborg, near the Pompidou Centre.

 

These Brakes Made Me Stop--And Take Notice

On this blog, I have said that almost every "innovation" or "revolution" in cycling is simply a reiteration of something that was done earlier.  Some examples include non-round chainrings and aluminum frames.

The same can be said for "U"-brakes, which were found on many mountain bikes of the late 1980's.  Like cantilevers and "V" brakes, they mount on studs that are usually brazed onto the frame. They look like oversized centerpulls, which is what they basically are.  On one model, a cam mechanism replaced the straddle cable and yoke found on cantilevers and centerpulls.  This helped to make the brake more rigid and powerful, but also were prone to getting clogged with mud or fouled by debris when the brakes were mounted, as they typically were, on the chainstays.

They actually bore a striking resemblance to these brakes made from the 1930s until the 1960s:

I suspect this particular model was made by Jeay because Mercier, among other French bike makers,  equipped their tandems, touring bikes,  randonneuses and city bikes with them.   

Those brakes, like "U" brakes, are operated by a cam that's pulled by the cable.  Also like U brakes, they mount on studs that are higher on the forks or stays than those for cantilevers but lower than the ones used for centerpulls. 

The Mercier in the photo has other features--such as the frame tube configuration and rear pannier-- rarely, if ever, found on bikes that made their way to the US:

That means, of course, I am not in Kansas, let alone the US.  More on that soon.
 

I'm Such A Fast Woman That....

Since April, when I visited my parents in Florida,I've been cycling more than I've cycled in a while.  That, after a winter of little riding.  Still, I feel as if I'm getting back some of my former condition:  I'm passing other riders who would've left me in the dust back in March.  Also, I see that--without even trying--I'm shaving time off my regular rides.

Am I turning into a fast woman?  Yes!  How fast?  Well, the next post you read from me will be from another time zone.  Actually, it will be a few time zones from my home.

I'll tell you more about it in that post.  For now, I'll just say I got luckier than I've been in a while.  I hope it's a sign of things to come.

A really fast woman: Rebecca Twigg.  Photographed by Annie Liebowitz