Cyclists' holiday

Today is Assomption - memo to France, why bother with a holiday when everybody's on vacation? I mean, seriously, everything is closed today, but 90% of it was closed yesterday, and 80% was closed last week too!

Anyway, Betsy had the day off, and the weather finally looked decent so we got the bikes out. We hadn't taken them across to the Bois de Boulogne yet, partly because the on-street routes to get there are kinda intimidating with Carter pedaling himself. With the promise of 75 degrees and partly sunshiney weather, we took the plunge. After sleeping late, of course. Our new expat friends Tom & Carol had bought and brought a new trail-a-bike for Calvin's use, and we hadn't taken it out yet. Carter's close to outgrowing his $8 thrift-store bike, so we headed to the bike shop to rent him a 5-speed.



Our trip over there, via mostly bike lanes (some shared with busses and taxis, yikes!) went very well. Carter really tries hard and doesn't complain about all the riding at all, but he has the attention span of a 7-year-old on a bike in a big city with lots of stuff to look at! After we got to the park, where many of the roads were closed down for the holiday, we had a great and relaxing time meandering along them and the many paths through the Bois. We found a lovely lake with shade trees, ducks, and other pique-niquers and boules players and cyclists about. After our bread, ham, and cheese lunch, we rode around for a while longer until it was time to head home. We ran into Mike from the bike shop on an ice cream run, and he brought back a couple for the boys. Come join us for a bike ride soon!