Paris Sales

I went for my first long ride in Paris on Friday lunch. The traffic is not too bad and quite polite to cyclists. There isn't much of a bikeway network so it is often a case of using the footpath and some rather busy "shared lanes".

At the start of every summer the "Soldes" signs appear in the stores signalling the start of the famed Paris sales. All the clothing stores (and many others) offer large discounts and the Parisians descend upon the stores. On Saturday we looked at a couple but didn't have the energy to track down the bargains. In particular, the womens shoe section of the large Au Printemps store was close to a riot.

Afterwards we wandered the 1st arrondisment (inner city suburb) and visited one our favourite parks. The Palais Royal is a lush coutyard hidden from the street. Once you enter it is an oasis from the heat and bustle of the city outside. We ate a picnic lunch and recovered our energy.

We then caught the metro to buy some chain lube then headed back to the river and visited the islands in the Seine. The larger one has the Notre Dame cathedral and was crazy busy with tourists. The queue to get in was long and there were literally thousands of tourist milling in the square in front of the church. We avoided the
whole pace and miraclously just a couple of streets away it was very quite and we soon crossed over to the smaller island. This was much nicer and has many nice old streets. It also boasts the home of Paris' famed Berthillion ice cream. They are very richly flavoured and didn't dissapoint.