Velib to go international

After all, it does not matter that much anymore if taxis go on strike in Paris now that we have the Velib! Velib is still a huge success - a little too much, as sometimes it's hard to finD one. Not only did the the company that makes them (JC Decaux) win a prize recently for the design of the bikes, but they're also selling them like hot cakes all over the world! I hear that Chicago might soon fall for them too. What is it with the French and their transportation systems (bullet train, Metro, Velib...)!

Happy birthday Velib!

I can still remember the day I told you about Velib, this bike sharing system that the Paris town hall implemented throughout the city to stimulate the use of non polluting vehicles (instead of cars and motorbikes). Well, it's been exactly 6 years, as Velib celebrated its 6th anniversary last Monday... One thing is sure; it's a success! More than 250 000 Parisians subscribe to the service on a yearly basis, one Velib is rented every second within greater Paris and the oldest user is... 88 years old! Tourists also use it, of course! Look at the chart they have here if you can read French. As for me, well I tried it once, about 5 years ago, but never since the!  

Velib is 5 years old!

The Velib (on demand bicycle service that I mentioned many times here) has just turned 5! With more than 23 000 bicycles and 1 700 stations, it has really conquered the hart of many Parisians (there are 224 000 - regular - subscribers and more that 13 million people used it at least once (I did!) during the 5 past years. To celebrate, there was a velib "race" yesterday morning on the Champs Elysées. I was there, of course (taking photos, not riding!!). More about Velib in English.

After Velib, Pielib

You all remember Velib right? This new bike rental system that allows Parisians - and tourists - to pick up a bike from any of numerous stations spread out through the city. Well, yesterday, to make fun of all this and to get attention, someone (Sébastien Brochot) inaugurated the first Pielib station. Pielib is a play on word with Pied (foot in French) as Velib is also a play on word with Velo (bike in French). As you can see on the making of Pielib offers a "rental shoes service" and strangely use the exact same stations as Velib, LOL!

Velib, a huge success

Huge success for the Velib, the - almost - free bike system that the Paris Town Hall installed about a month ago. The 1 million bike rental milestone was hit only 18 days after the inauguration and about 50 000 to 70 000 people use it everyday. I still haven't tried it yet. One more day before my vacation... Just uploaded 20 pics for you, now I need to write the captions!

Velib'art!

This put a smile on my face when I saw it off la rue des Martyrs in the 9th arrondissement. You probably recognized a Velib, only instead of being nicely parked in a station, this one was attached to a street sign in a pretty odd way ;-) It was probably a stolen one, as, when you don't put it back in a station you're still billed by the hour... and people generally don't do that! It's impossible to know how many Velibs get stolen every year, for the company that manages the service does not disclose the figures, but I suspect they are pretty high...

Biking in Paris

Sorry, I have to get up very early tomorrow and it's late already so you won't have a caption today, just a photo ;) Why don't you make your own, then I'll use the best!

10 PM update. OK, though choice of course. I loved - and laughed at - TF's words, but it's more a report than a real caption. I blushed - and also laughed - at Michael's one (New Paris Monument unveiled) but it would be a little vain for me to pick this one. So I'm happy to declare Drummond the winner of the day with:

"Latest Paris Velib is eco disaster, say critics!"

The Mairie de Paris (sounds familar) was roundly criticised by enviromental groups today after unveiling its new Velib prototype. Despite the cost of over 10,000 Euros per unit, their anger was targeted mainly at the environmental impact of 20,000 additional motorcycles on the streets of Paris.
Following on from proposals to turn the Tour de France into a motorcycle event, this latest bombshell did not go down well with both traditionalists and Green campaigners alike. Both President Sarkozy and his Wife are keen 'bikers',as is the Mayor of Paris. "In the name of equality why shouldn't everyone have a Harley just like us?" they declared in a joint statement issued earlier today.

Paris Car share

Like many big cities throughout the world - and on top of our rent a bike 'Velib' system - the town hall of Paris has appointed 3 companies (Caisse Commune, Mobizen and Okigo) to offer a car share service. The principle is simple: you first need to subscribe to the service (some companies charge a subscription fee) then whenever you need a car, you just need to pick it up in a parking space near you (like the one I photographed) and pay by the hour (2 to 9 € depending on your plan) or the kilometer. When you're done, you return the car where you took it. The petrol (gas) is included. Pretty clever, especially when you need a car to go to Ikea or to take the kids to the country!

Hotel Le Meurice

Hotel Meurice - Le Meurice, as it's generally called - is a famous hotel located on the rue de Rivoli, near La Concorde. It was built in 1835 (although in some aspects it has a much longer history that you can check here) and was one of the favorite homes of famous British travelers and many European kings and Queens. Nowadays, you can find iPod docking stations in each room! Anyway, as I was passing in front of it, I noticed this bike, that they probably lend to customers who want to go for a ride in Paris. Much more chic than a velib!

The love bike!

Intriguing isn't? At first I thought someone had found an interesting way of parking his bike (In Paris, where space is scarce, people find it hard to put away their bike - and leaving it in the street is rather risky as there are many thefts). But in fact, this "love bike" is just a store sign belonging to Allovelo.com, a bike rental and repair place located in the 2nd arrondissement. A nice alternative to Velib... FYI. I'm currently working on the 2010 PDP Calendar. The color version is already completed... I still have the B&W to make. Thanks for your help again.

Want to ride my bicycle?

OK, OK, my bicycle does not look too good... I'm going to have to buy a new model, or... take advantage of a brand new service they are currently installing in Paris. It's called Velib and it allows you to "borrow" a bicycle at one station, drive it for 1/2 hour and give it back at any other station of your choice (eventually there should be a station every 300 meters (1 000 feet). All this is free as long as you pay a yearly fee of 29 euros. You only pay extra costs if you use the bicycle for more than 1/2 hour. Isn't great? All the info is here (but in French only...)

(Almost) free bike ride, day one!

You remember this post, when I told you they were currently installing a fantastic bike service called Velib in Paris? Well, that's it, they opened it yesterday (Sunday). The principle is very simple: there are 750 terminals throughout Paris (and there will be more - one every 100 meters/ 110 yards - by the end of 2007) from where you can take or return a bike. If you're just visiting here you can buy a 7 day ticket for 5€ (or even a 1 day ticket for 1 €) then pay as you go. Well, in fact you may never pay since the first 30 minutes are free... For a complete information, please visit the PDP Forum under this topic.

Snow remains

So I hear it's Northern America's turn now! I just saw a TV report about New York City in the snow and, well, the least I can say is that it's much worse than it was in Paris last week... And though there is still snow around here, for it's so cold that it does not melt. I took this photo in Montparnasse where they have a large Velib station. Needless to say that at the moment Parisians are a little reluctant to biking nowadays ;-)

Sex in the city!

Sex on PDP today? Not really, but nudity! Explanation: this weekend we celebrated "Le Vélo" (bicycle) throughout France and in Paris of course (since the creation of Velib', it is extremely popular to ride a bicycle here). This gave an idea to a few protester associations who teamed up with nudist associations and organized a ride through Paris with no clothes on to protest against the invasion of cars, scooters, motorbikes... in Paris. One thing is sure, they managed to get medias' attention; there were more journalists and cameras there than actual demonstrators! More photos on the making of, of course ;).

A world premiere?

This may not be the most beautiful photo you've ever seen on PDP, but it's one that is worth remembering... Why? Because it shows an Autolib station being installed. Autolib? It's the car equivalent to Velib. Now I can hear you from here: "What? he dares calling this a world premiere, whereas in my city we have had Car sharing for years now..." All wrong. What you have is "hourly car rental": you take a car down the street, but you have to bring it back where you took it, within a pretty precise time frame. With Autolib, you take the car at the nearest station and you drop it at the closest station near your destination. And when you return, you do the same. This way you only pay for a small journey. The service will open in December, I'll come back to it, of course...

Paris mayor to be reelected

I realized recently that I never showed you the mayor of Paris. Not that you really care, but since we have elections coming up (March 9 and 16) I thought it was a good time ;) His name is Bertrand Delanoë, he belongs to the socialist party, he was born in 1950 and, according to polls, there is no doubt he's going to be reelected. Parisians appreciate what he's done for the city (the new tramway, Nuit blanche, Paris Plage, Velib, car chasing... to mention his most visible actions) and forgave him for failing to get the Olympics! Have a look at his promotional video, it's pretty well made. Did I mention he also survived an assassination attempt?

New bike Lanes

Paris is not Amsterdam, but there is no doubt that there are more and more bikes in our streets. And not only because of the Velib experiment (which is actually more than an experiment now!), but also because more and more Parisians own a bike. To protect them, there are now new bike lanes, like this one. But if you pay attention you'll see that these lanes are in the opposite way of the car traffic! Now, all one way streets have a bike lane like this. Which is a bit puzzling at first, of course ;-)

Velib in the snow

Giant snowfall this morning over Paris. The whole city was a mess - including me on my scooter and people on Velibs! I took this photo around 8:45 while the roads were still clear (well sort of!) but a few minutes later it was all slippery everywhere. Funny as hell (except for those who had an accident.). Tomorrow is going to be worse apparently so I think I'll take the metro to work. That means less photos for you, I'm sorry...

Monthly Theme day: when people think of my city...

I know you expected me to come up with THE idea for today's theme but I could not think of the one thing that would represent Paris. So I went the easy way: I browsed my photos and selected the ones I thought would represent Paris best (if you want a better view, simply click on the photo):
Place de la Concorde (this one is recent), Musée d'Orsay (this one too), fashion, wine (the one stolen from my cellar!), Notre Dame, Paris cobblestones (and velib!), strikes!, romance, fashion shows, Beaubourg (Pompidou Center), Paris skyline, Hermès (and luxury goods in general), sex, Rodin, Ratatouille(!), croissants - and petits déjeuners in general, Edith Piaf, macarons (hi Monica LOL), love, a good beer on a Paris café terrace, the fabulous bridges of Paris, Sacré Coeur, fine food, less fine - but still very good! - food, France's colors, Champs Elysées, the "crottoirs" (dog poop on sidewalks), the metro, "the" tower, Saint Germain des prés, large tables where you can have endless dinners with friends, Charles de Gaulle, more sex, more metro, the French tennis open and... 2 cafés et l'addition!

Today is a theme day (when people think of my city, they think of...) among the City Daily Photo community. This month 135 (it's growing every month!) are participating. Please pay them a visit but keep in mind that not everyone lives on the same time zone.
Portland (OR), USA - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Memphis (Tennessee), USA - Manila, Philippines - San Diego (CA), USA - Anderson (SC), USA - New York City (NY), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - San Francisco (CA), USA - Mumbai (Maharashtra), India - Mainz, Germany - Weston (FL), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Turin, Italy - Las Vegas (NV), USA - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Bicheno, Australia - Durban, South Africa - Joplin (MO), USA - Nashville (TN), USA - Stockholm, Sweden - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Brussels, Belgium - Chicago (IL), USA - Montpellier, France - Seattle (WA), USA - Mazatlan, Mexico - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Sesimbra, Portugal - Toulouse, France - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Susanville (CA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - Helsinki, Finland - Pilisvörösvár, Hungary - Lisbon, Portugal - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Trujillo, Peru - Dunedin (FL), USA - Albuquerque (NM), USAPort Angeles (WA), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - London, UK - Baziège, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Greenville (SC), USA - Selma (AL), USA - Mumbai, India - Naples (FL), USA - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Setúbal, Portugal - Stayton (OR), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Sofia, Bulgaria - Arradon, France - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Athens, Greece - Austin (TX), USA - Singapore, Singapore - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Jackson (MS), USA - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Budapest, Hungary - Rotterdam, Netherlands - St Malo, FranceChandler (AZ), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Cleveland (OH), USA - Nottingham, UK - Kansas City (MO), USA - The Hague, Netherlands - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - Wrocław, Poland - Chateaubriant, France - Cheltenham, UK - Moscow, Russia - Monrovia (CA), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - Toruń, Poland - Grenoble, France - Lisbon, Portugal - New Orleans (LA), USA - Sydney, Australia - Boston (MA), USA - American Fork (UT), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Montréal (QC), Canada - Wichita (KS), USA - Radonvilliers, France - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Christchurch, New Zealand - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Wailea (HI), USA - Aliso Viejo (CA), USA - St Francis, South Africa - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Seattle (WA), USA - Pasadena (CA), USA - Vienna, Austria - Orlando (FL), USA - Torun, Poland - Delta (CO), USA - Santa Fe (NM), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Paris, France - Stavanger, Norway - Niamey, Niger - Le Guilvinec, France - Bogor, Indonesia - Saarbrücken, Germany - Auckland, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Budapest, Hungary - Juneau (AK), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Glasgow, Scotland - Chicago (IL), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Adelaide (SA), Australia - Sydney, Australia - Riga, Latvia - Subang Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Terrell (TX), USA - Terrell (TX), USA - -