Segway to Paris

There are many things one should do in life, and this definitely includes going to Paris.  Needless to say, there are many things that you have to see in Paris, the City of Light.  If I could suggest one way of combining this necessity with a mode of transport that is a jolt of fun, treat yourself to a Segway tour of this remarkable city.

3 Wise Segways

A segway is an astonishing 2-wheeled device that seems to respond magically and intuitively to your desire to go fast or slow, turn left or right or just to rotate on the spot so you can take in a quick 360 scan of whatever wonder you happen to be surrounded by.

Guess where

This was the second encounter I’ve had with segways, after a similar tour of Vienna a few years back.  The way I’ve described that tour to anyone who was interested, and possibly to some who weren’t, is that I remember almost nothing about the no-doubt breathtaking highlights of the Austrian capital, but had the absolute best time charging around on my hired Segway.  

For anyone who takes delight in effortless, graceful movement and is fascinated by the prospect of a piece of beautifully engineered technology that can leap gutters or stop on sixpence, charge through a break in the traffic, surge across a cobbled square or shortcut through a shopping arcade, then Segway is the way to travel!

Courtesy of Fat Tire Tours, located in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, you can take a tour that is led by a guide who not only knows his or her stuff, but is not adverse to having a bit of fun on the way.  Simon, our guide, was able to provide us with an authoritative spiel on the major monuments of central Paris, led the fun on our 2-wheeled steeds as we played “street domination” and was also able to make wry observations about life among the Parisennes.  We all agreed that for all the great cultural and gastronomic achievements of the French, good coffee could not be counted among them.  It is probably one of the last great unsolved mysteries - why a culture that so prides itself on scaling the heights of gastronomic perfection could so utterly fail to be able to make a decent cup of coffee.  It’s not just that they seem to be unable produce a decent but humble espresso, but ask them to involve milk in your coffee and all pretence at sophistication and savoir faire evaporates.  Not that they would see it that way.

Simon did also make the observation that lots of Australians he had met were actually coffee snobs.  I was tempted to defend our beleaguered land, but decided quickly that if I had to be snobbish about something, then an insistence on good coffee was laudable and defensible.

Anyway, treat yourself to a segway, whatever the city.  Our tour could have been a little warmer as the temperature was in single figures that day, but it’s a phenomenal way to get around, and in a city as beautiful as Paris, I would say it’s parfait!

The ultimate thrill