Fat Tyres in France

There are worse things in life than having to go to England for a wedding but it did mean that I would be off my Mountain Bike for a couple of weeks. So I was keen to do any type of riding I could while I was away. We had a 3 day stop over in Paris before the wedding and as it turned out a company called Fat Tire Bike Tours offered guided bike rides that took in some of the main tourist attractions which sounded like fun. At least the bikes had fat tyres to remind me of mountian biking.

The tour was for four hours and we ended up in a group of 19 people who were mainly Australians with a few Americans thrown in for good measure. The company that runs the tours is from America and the tour guides are usually American or Australian as well.

No helmet required, comfy bike with 3 gears

There was no checking of bike riding ability and as we were in Europe no helmets were required. We did get a 5 minute safety talk which was based around "safety in numbers" and if we all stuck together the cars would let us through or at least that was the plan.

We headed off through some quiet back streets and then into a park before arriving at the Eiffel Tower. We stopped regularly at other famous spots like the Louvre, Napoleon's Tomb and the Place de la Concorde. This last one is in the middle of a very busy intersection, it's not quite as bad as the round about at the Arc de Triomphe but still full on for a group of riders who most recent time on a bike would have been when they were at school.

Napoleon's Tomb

Next stop was a World Heritage listed park with a lovely cafe amongst the trees which was our rest stop. Unfortunately because of the heritage listing bike riding wasnt allowed in the park. You can walk your bike through the park but you cant ride it, not sure what the sense is in that.

Hike a bike

After we left the park it was time for quick toilet stop, well as long as you had the cash handy to pay for the privilege but at least you got to listen to disco music while you were busy.

We headed for home and maybe some of the inexperienced riders were getting tired but we had one funny incident and very nearly a serious accident on the way back to the bike shop. First of all a young lady riding in front of me managed to T-Bone a cycle rickshaw. It was hilarious to watch as she tried to brake but didnt slow down and after almost ending up in the rickshaw with the driver she copped a mouthful of abuse for not looking where she was going.

Luckily we were now on a cycle path so we thought nothing else would happen but there was one last turn needed across a lane of traffic. The first 10 or so riders made it safely across but there was a bus approaching who had right of way and didnt look like stopping for a bunch of tourists on bikes. A couple of riders took our guide's advice that the cars would stop for us a bit too literally and basically played chicken with the bus. Just when it looked like Fat Bike Tours may have its first fatality the bus driver hit the brakes and all of our group made it through safely.

Overall it was a great way to see the city and I got my fix of riding to get me through the rest of the trip.