The Never Ending Bike Ride

My new favorite thing is the Velib (the Paris Bike Share program). It comes in handy when you miss the last metro and need a way home, during the greves (strikes), or just for fun. I first used the Velibs when Julie and Brianne were in town. I had so much fun riding around with Julie that I decided to take Brianne to the Bois de Boulogne and the Parc de Bagatelle.

The Parc de Bagatelle is situated in the Bois de Boulogne and is known to have one of the oldest gardens in France. Every year it holds a very competitive rose competition and the flowers cannot be seen or sold anywhere until next year. Besides just roses, the park has waterfalls, peacocks and a squirrel (the only one squirrel I have seen in Paris so far!).

Brianne and I got our Velibs and headed to the Bois de Boulogne and Parc de Bagatelle by direction of my handy not so reliable iPhone map application. Maybe not the best decision on my part ... oops, sorry Brianne! For a point of reference, the Bois de Boulogne is 2.5 times bigger than Central Park. The Parc de Bagatelle was not easy to find to say the least. After about an hour biking, I thought I found my way, instead I found the spot where the hookers hangout... he he he. We rode past vans with their doors wide open to reveal cheetah/leopard/zebra print blankets and women waiting in the front seat. We even saw dirty old men get in the vehicles. At this moment, Brianne was screaming my name ... oops! Now, I had heard that you do not want to go to the Bois de Boulogne at night but it was around noon. My lovely response was "Don't worry they're not going to come after us just keep riding" yeah, I'm a wonderful friend. If you think about it, I gave Brianne a very cultural experience and now she knows what it means when she sees a parked car with a lady the age of her grandmother sitting on the side of street with the passenger side door open, and she knows about the beautiful Brazilian ladies - I'm not going to spoil that surprise, you will have to come to Paris and check it out yourself. :)

Three hours later, we finally found the Parc de Bagatelle and it was a beautiful park and worth the adventure. We even got to have a fancy lunch on the property. The Bois de Boulogne and the Parc de Bagatelle are definitely worth seeing just make sure you have a good map and stay away from certain streets.

Here are some pictures, hope you enjoy!