Bike Commuting: a photo essay

On my bike ride home last night, I realized that over the 10 km ride I pass through a variety of different areas that range from super urban to totally rural... all within sight of the tip of the Eiffel tower, which is visible from outside my office.  The Paris region is funny in that you can be totally in the city one minute, and driving past rolling hills and farmland the next.  On my way home tonight, I snapped some quick photos of my commute to share on the blog.  I commute home just as the sun is starting to set, which means the light wasn't great for my little point-and-shoot camera, but hopefully these do the trick.

I work on a plateau about 20km outside of Paris that is home to numerous tech companies, and is smack in the middle of farmland and old homesteads that I guarantee were built long before the state of Oregon was established.  Once I leave work, the first few km of my commute is actually through farm fields.  I have no idea what grows here, but in the area in general they appear to grow lots and lots of cabbage and hearty winter greens that can stand a good hard frost.  From here, I head into the woods you can see in the distance.

This part of my commute is super quiet.  Today I saw one other cyclist and a runner, but otherwise the trail was all mine.  This probably represents about 3 km of my ride.  Once I get out of the woods, I join up with a freshly paved dog poop repository bike path that runs alongside the dedicated bus lanes towards the city of Massy; where we live.  Traffic here is awful at rush hour, but busses enjoy a separate road so thay they can cruise right down into the valley towards the train station.  On the way to work, this is all uphill - my lungs heave and my legs burn, and by the time I get to work I am sweating even though the temp in the morning is below freezing.  On the way home, I get to fly along this downhill in about 20% of the time it takes me to climb it in the morning!

Again, no cars to speak of on this part of the road.  This path leads straight to a bus/train station, which is a hub for busses, Paris region trains called RER, and the famous TGV.  After 7km of car-free bliss, my senses are even more sensitive to the assault of diesel fumes and road noise.  Right by the TGV station is Massy's urban renewal zone, full of shiny new tech company buildings, modern condos, and tons of construction of new high-density urban housing.

 From here, I pass under an old (but still used) train bridge and into the older section of town, which feels decidedly more "French".  This area is full of bakeries, cafés, Turkish and Greek sandwich (gyros) shops, and old ladies walking with grocery carts.

Seriously, the difference in feeling once I pass under the train bridge is unreal - it doesn't even feel like the same city.  From here, it's only another 1.5km home to our little apartment.

We have been terrible about putting photos up on the blog, and I promise to try and improve our odds on this.  We made a conscious choice, when we started the blog, not to post photos of ourselves or of the little one.  There was no particularly strong reason for this (hell, we post photos on facebook all the time), but for now the decision still feels right so we are sticking with it.  That shouldn't mean, however, that we don't post photos at all!

The apartment is coming together - we unpacked the last boxes a few days ago.  I promise to post apartment pics once the place is cleaned up!

- E