Travel Tips

We did our laundry at a laverie half a block away from our hotel. It proved to be a lengthy process (we had to ask a French mom there for help – the controls aren’t on the machines but on a box on the wall), but we’d brought along books to read and sat outside on a bench, where it was cooler.

While we were sitting there, we heard an odd shooshing noise and looked up to see rollerbladers, hundreds of them, coming down the middle of the street! They were followed by some bicyclists, a police van, and a paramedic van with flashing blue lights.

I had heard of this – it’s like the Critical Mass movement in San Francisco, where bicyclists take over the streets – but I’d read that it took place in Paris on Friday nights. This being Sunday afternoon, it came as a delightful surprise.

Most of the rollerbladers were in their 20s, but I saw others in their 50s, and one man appeared to be in his 70s. You go, Grandpère!

There were so many of them, like bison stampeding on the Great Plains in old Western movies. It just made you want to hoot and holler!

I was so glad that I had my camera with me.

The rollerbladers were followed by bicyclists, then a police van...

...and finally, by a paramedic van. Sometimes the best memories are the unexpected ones.