Silver Wheel Trek: We went to Paris

We went to Paris where we rid our selves of some excess baggage. Thanks to our storage locker we are no longer carrying any camping gear on our bikes. None of the campgrounds north of Provence open before May 15 . I liked camping because it freed up a lot of space in the budget. We stayed in some nice camprounds for 9 euros a night. A couple nights like that and you don't have to turn down the fancy hotel in the perfect spot because it is too expensive. Everything balanced out. Now we will have to do a bit of extra research to find an acceptable hotel in an acceptable location. We are getting rid of all the cooking gear too, so we can look forward to lots of sandwiches but no hot tea on the side of the road on the cold afternoons. I won't miss the extra weight of the camping gear on the bike though. My bike should be down to around 60 lbs and Yoly is shooting for 45. We plan to zig zag north between the Alps and Massif Central along the route of the Rhône river up to Dijon where hopefully we find ourselves on the towpaths of the beautiful canals in the Burgundy region. Mayby we will get to do some more camping then.

This is part of the route we chose to hike, with all our camping gear, between the Metro station and the storage facility in Goenesse.

I love Paris. Paris had much less air polution this time compared to when we were here at Christmas with Hugh, but it was still quite noticeable. In fact Paris started a new program like London where you can drive into town on even days if your plate number is even and odd days if your plate number is odd. The new program starts next Monday March 17 2014, don't say you weren't told!

We didn't manage to climb the Eiffle Tower or boat through the tunel on the canal de Saint Martin but we saw some new places and had some fine meals thanks to advice from front desk of our hotel.

I am not sure what this is, something about an indoor circus.

The bridge is getting heavier by the hour because of the love locks. It's a lovely view from both sides of the bridge.

A lady feeding the pigeons outside Notre Dame

At the Treasury in Notre Dame

There is allways room for more stained glass on our blog, because it is facinating.

It says it contains the remains of Jesus' crown of thorns in the sphere part.

We went for a walk along canal St Martin and discovered some uniquely Parisian locations. Like thispartially buried giant bicycle.

Yoly has been looking for a new bell for her bike since the old one got torn loose last time the bike got loaded on a train.

Looks like she found one, she actually got one (bell) for free from a bike shop downtown later in the day.

There is allways work for a mechanic. Al's happly playground place.

My reflection on the Science Center, Yoly had to be quick with the camera to catch me looking this good not to mention the pigeon on my head. The pigion is actually a duck walking by behind me in the grass.

The Science Centre

Canal San Martin Basin de la Villette. If our timing would have been right, we could have taken the boat to the port de l'Arsenal. Part of the canal is underground.

Light does some funny things sometimes.

I wasn't really able to capture the scene because the reflection in the water was changing constantly and looked like it was alive and moving.

We found the Viaduc des Arts, a raised garden built on an abandoned rialway above the streets of Paris. We found it while killing time waiting for our train and hope to explore it more completly next time we visit.