So, I had returned at 1am from a 2* Michelin restaurant sober as I had been driving. Knowing I wouldn't have a lot of time to see the sights of Lyon I thought, hey let's go for a ride.
Credit card in hand I walked over to the Velo'v terminal, and after my absolute failure to get the Velib to work I wasn't entirely sure it would work for me. But, 2 minutes later and with a €150 deposit sitting on my credit card with a beep and a pull I had my velo'v affair had started.
Lyon is interesting and at 1.30 in the morning it's an absolute dream to ride around, big clear streets fairly flat (until you go into the old town, but then I just dropped the bike off, went for a wander on foot and then picked another one up)
Bikes themselves are the standard rental model, little bit crunky, big bit heavy, and I had one with a broken seat pin, which meant I looked like one of those kids on BMXs you see these days. But they were pleasant and clean to ride, the three hub gears were enough for most purposes and it was really just wonderful being able to pick up and drop off bikes throughout the town (even at 3am :) )
Early evening and daytime cycles was a bit hairier, they don't have the same segregated infrastructure in Lyon as they do in paris, so you are forced to mix it with the traffic a bit.
Experience in Edinburgh helped significantly, but to be honest the drivers were fairly friendly, no swinging into oncoming lanes or the wrong way round traffic islands just to get past me, if there was no room, they just dropped in behind and went past you a bit later.
Driving the Renault Trafic minibus round the streets was far more terrifying (particularly for my passengers!)
(10 points if you recognise the film reference in the title)
posts
