Bike tour of Paris from glynnis on Vimeo.

Taken at a stop on our bike tour.

Our second full day in Paris (03 September 2008), Abroadco booked a bike tour for everyone studying with the company.  There are twenty-six of us all together this fall--twenty-four girls and two boys.  We live all over the city in apartments, home stays, and in the dorms at Cité U, an international student center with public facilities and lots of student services (but no regular curriculum or faculty, to my knowledge).  Cité U houses hundreds of Paris's international students in a number of dormitories organized by language.  Most American students at Cité U live at the Fondation des États-Unis.

Our bike tour was with the Fat Tire Bike Tour company, which has a work force composed primarily of post-undergrad sporty Americans who have been living in the city for many months and don't speak a lick of French.  They are the type you would find playing frisbee or tossing a football on the quad, except now they've graduated and do so in some of Paris's most beautiful parks.  Oh.  And they give these bike tours.  This is not a tone of criticism, but of pure delight and amusement.  They were quite lovely and gave a very entertaining and informative tour, peppered with terms like "bro," "cat," "chick," and "totally awesome," referring of course to famous people and events throughout French history.  If you go on the tour any time soon, see if you can get Ned as your guide.

More photos from the tour on flickr (some forthcoming).

So, in short, don't dismiss city bike tours.  The tour was one of my favorite things that I've done in Paris as a tourist.