At the end of April, my team was relocated to offices far far far from civilisation. To a location beyond the Boulevard Peripherique. I can almost hear your gasps of horror from here.
My journey to work changed from half an hour to just under one hour. I tortured myself by constantly calculating how many extra hours I was spending on public transport (4.17 hours a week, 83.33 hours a week, 3749.85 hours a year), and I spent half the journey to work tutting and huffing and sighing about how much I hated my commute.
I was turning into one of ‘those’ people you see on the metro. Something had to give.
After trying all possible routes of getting to and from work, I started to think that maybe I’d cycle, at least part of the way. I’ve long wanted to make use of the Velib bike share system in Paris, but have always been put off by all the cars and buses and vans that are just itching to mow me down as I wobble along the side of the road.
But desperate times call for desperate measures, and with the reassurance that a large part of the journey is along a safe and calm bike path next to the Bois de Boulogne, I paid my €29, bought a (far from) s*xy helmet, and prepared to take to the roads.
The first morning was a bit of a disaster. I didn’t check the bike before I removed it from the holder and it turns out it was without a chain, a rather essential part of any bike journey. Having already checked a bike out I wasn’t allowed to take another one for fifteen minutes. I didn’t realise this at the time and thought my card was blocked, so I resumed my huffing and puffing and tutting and caught the bus instead.
Note to self. Always check the bike has a chain, both pedals, pumped tyres, functional seat, and functional brakes before setting off.
Since then, I’ve taken a grand total of five Velib journeys, and this morning was the first morning that I didn’t get lost of my way to work. Hurrah!
It’s true, that my legs do ache a little bit from the 25ish minute journey (I still have to get the metro part of the way), and my hair looks even dodgier than usual after sweating under a helmet. But this morning I arrived into work feeling alive and happy after my little cycle work-out. These are not feelings that work generally inspires, so all I can say, is vive la Velib!
