Vélib, Paris

Originally uploaded by batigolix

After arriving by Eurostar or other means, Paris breaks are usually spent wandering around the city on foot supplemented by rides on the metro or bus. Here’s a way to discover other parts of Paris which you might not encounetr otherwise. The vélib or “vélo libre” is a public bicycle rental programme in Paris, It is a great way of exploring the city. The system was launched in July 2007and has grown to 20,000 bicycles and 1,450 stations, roughly one station every 300 metres throughout Paris city centre, making Vélib’ the largest system of its kind in the world.

To use the system, you need to take out a subscription, which then allows an unlimited number of rentals. Subscriptions cost €1 per day, €5/week or €29/year. With a subscription, bike rental is then free for the first half hour of each trip and you can make an unlimited number of free trips each day so long as you return the bike to a station within half an hour of each rental. Any trip that lasts longer than 30 minutes incurs a charge of one to four euros for each subsequent 30-minute period. The increasing price scale is intended to keep the bikes in circulation. So you just use the bike to get from one part of the city to another, then you put it back into the system and keep doing that for only €1 a day or less! Brilliant for getting to places like Pere Lachaise cemetery or the the Bois de Boulogne.

With the free bicycle scheme you can turn Paris breaks into a little home from home.