Vélib bikes now available to "chipless" Americans in Paris
 

Just in case you haven't already read it elsewhere, you can now rent Vélib bikes over the internet and make the 150€ guarantee (not debited). The "Vélib Visit" system lets you use your Visa or Mastercard to get your electronic "ticket" for a day or a week -- you print it yourself and then all you have to do when you take out your first bike is to say "yes" to the terms and conditions on the machine.

Rates have gone up to 1.80€ for 24 hours or 8€ for a week.

http://velib.paris.fr

Thanks. This is very helpful.

I would caution the average American tourist from taking off on a bike in central Paris without knowing the city well. Just heard from a Paris friend who is in a big-shot orchestra as a cello player that one of their Parisian orchestra members - a young woman was just killed on a Velb' bike when she was run over by a bus. You should IMO be an experienced biker in hectic city traffic as bike lanes though there are not always IME as a pedestrian viewing them honored in their integrity in Paris by local traffic. This plan is great for locals perhaps but the average tourist IMO should ponder this carefully - it may sound a lot more romantic than it is and with the great metro and bus system simply not needed for transit by tourists who do not know where they are going on the hectic streets.

but thanks Kerouac for posting about solving this problem of the bikes not being accessible previously for Americans - I for one would love to use them but I also have years of experience biking in Paris.

Beginners should start on a Sunday morning before 11am.

My daughter-in-law and I were discussing that last week. On one hand, it would be fun to rent one to experience Paris at street level, but I actually remarked that there's no way I'd ride one in that traffic.

We saw so many people - lots of women - riding to and from work on their bike. Oh...there's evidently no helmet law in France.

Actually, my dream is to live in a smaller (French, bien sûr) town and own a bike.
Heaven :)

Not only is there no helmet law in any European country I've biked in but no one - no one it seems ever wears ones - from tykes on bikes to old geezers. Renting a bike and asking for a helmet in places like Amsterdam will have you greeted in mystified stares.

there are great places to bike in Paris - like the raised walkway from Bastille to Bois des Vincennes where there are miles of paths to ride on and some neat things to see and also in the Bois de Bologne (sp?) and the Velib' program makes this easy - I assume there are Velib' bikes in and around the Bois de Bologne?

Thanks Kerouac - I shall pass that info along to some firends.

If I were to wear a cycle helmet (which I don't) I'd want to use my own anyway, not rent one with a bike.

Anybody who thinks they need a helmet can get one at Go Sport or Décathlon.

But still I have never ever seen any French person wearing a helmet whilst biking.

I've never seen any cyclists wearing helmets in Central London either and their so called bike lines are not very wide.

PQ makes a good point. Drivers will assume you know what you're doing and where you're going, and that you're streetwise enough to understand local signage, road use conventions and traffic regulation systems (of which there are rather a lot in Paris). Don't expect much sympathy if you haven't ridden in years and are wobbling a bit while you get your balance and work out the gears.

And the experience will be much easer if you get one of the pocket map books which show you where all the Velib stations are and the one-way streets (because you need to plan ahead where you will go and where you will drop the bike - it's as exasperating for a law-abiding Velib user as for a motorist to see the place you want to get to and then to have sail past and go on around several hundred metres of streets to find the nearest Velib station with available parking slots).

PS I don't think you can cycle along the Promenade Plantée, at least not at the elevated Bastille end (and you wouldn't want to lug a bike up or down all those stairs to get there).

I see lots of Parisians on bikes wearing helmets, but never on a Vélib.

Patrick - I thought that could be the case but only after I posted.

I can say that in Orleans France no biker ever wears a helmet - Paris things are changing I guess.

and some of the old cobblestone streets - the few that have not been paved over can be slippery when wet or if a block is missing, etc.

I had thought that the Velib system accepted Amex cards.

Yes, it does. But the majority of Americans do not have those cards.

I have three of them.

So that's where they went. I finally cancelled mine after more than 25 years of near uselessness.