\u201cParisians drink coffee like medicine,\u201d Barron explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not something they actually enjoy\u201d. Peloton\u2019s flat white was the best we had in Europe, and there was no shortage of customers lining up for one.<\/p>\n
Flat whites and breakfast at Le Peloton cafe. Photo \/ Bike About Tours<\/p>\n
The cafe is also the meeting point for Bike About Tours, a business he began in 2006 with American Christian Osburn to solve another problem \u2013 that Paris has almost unlimited things to see but few ways of avoiding hectic crowds along the way. It took some negotiation with the city to manage the practicalities of the idea, but from small beginnings the company grew to a peak of more than 30 guides threading their way through the narrow streets of the French capital on two wheels, followed by small groups of happy tourists.<\/p>\n
French espresso continues to divide opinion. Photo \/ Unsplash<\/p>\n
My family excitedly assembled into one of those small groups shortly after the caffeine had kicked in \u2013 the parents and two eldest kids on individual cycles, with the boys in a rolling bucket attached to the front of Barron\u2019s e-bike. In the early days, Bike About focused on the landmarks but in recent years one of their most popular tours has been \u201cSecret Paris\u201d, a route that allows them to share the parts of the city\u2019s personality and history that would otherwise remain hidden.<\/p>\n
Kids join the family bike tour through Paris streets. Photo \/ Bike About Tours<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real Paris is behind the doors,\u201d Barron told us before stopping outside an actual door and encouraging us to peek behind it. An otherwise ordinary facade opened up to a manicured garden the size of a small city block. It was a stunning glimpse into what a backyard looks like for France\u2019s aristocratic families.<\/p>\n
Of course, much of the city\u2019s history is dominated by World War II, when it was occupied by the \u2026 \u201canyone know who the bad guys were in World War II?\u201d Barron asked my kids as we paused outside a school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2026Nazis?\u201d offered my 13-year-old gingerly, flooding me with relief regarding the New Zealand education system. <\/p>\n
Traces of the occupation are everywhere, once you start looking \u2013 memorably, in a list of names commemorating those who helped hide Jewish families during the worst moments, and a dried bouquet of flowers outside that same school, hung each year to memorialise the Jewish students who weren\u2019t so lucky.<\/p>\n
Jesse Mulligan beneath the Eiffel Tower. Photo \/ Jesse Mulligan<\/p>\n
The French Revolution looms large too, though I\u2019m sorry to say none of my children got the chocolate fish when asked \u201cwhich French queen got her head chopped off?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas it Kirsten Dunst?\u201d I asked, earning half a point for the family tally. One of the boys\u2019 favourite moments was when Barron pointed high on the wall of a local church to reveal a stray revolutionary cannonball still stuck in the masonry.<\/p>\n
In a city as intimidating as Paris, you can spend the entire time worrying you\u2019re not making the most of it. This charming tour is the antidote to that feeling. When people ask me what the best thing I did in Europe was, this is my answer.<\/p>\n
Much has changed since the business launched 20 years ago, including the arrival of around 30 copycat operators, whose groups we crossed from time to time. The city of Paris has changed too, building cycle lanes that make the whole proposition incredibly safe.<\/p>\n
Still, you can\u2019t save an idiot from himself.<\/p>\n
Guides gather cyclists beneath the Eiffel Tower. Photo \/ Bike About Tours<\/p>\n
\u201cLook Dad, when you pass this street you can see the Eiffel Tower!\u201d my daughter called out to me from the front of the pack.<\/p>\n
\u201cSee it? I\u2019ll do better than that and film it,\u201d I thought, looking forward to impressing my friends and followers with the footage.<\/p>\n
Jesse Mulligan smiles near the Eiffel Tower. Photo \/ Jesse Mulligan<\/p>\n
And that is how I captured the four most humiliating seconds of my life, riding one-handed into a pothole, squeezing the left brake and tumbling headfirst over the handlebars and onto the cobbled street I mentioned earlier. I was mercifully unhurt, but gosh did I cause a scene. Barron may have done a lot for the reputation of New Zealanders in Paris, but it only takes a moment to set an entire nation back to square one.<\/p>\n
Details<\/p>\n