I never imagined I would one day ride a bicycle through the streets of any city, let alone Paris.  While Paul and I are very skilled at reading maps and figuring out just where we are and where we need to be, I have to admit, I wasn’t quite confident in our abilities to maneuver bicycles through a busy French city.  In the end, the experience was unforgettable (on many levels) and is worth retelling over and over again.  Thanks to the Fat Tire Bicycle Tour, Paul and I met a group of other adventurous travelers at the base of the Eiffel Tower for the beginning of an all day and all night two-wheel excursion through the streets of Paris.  After walking several blocks to the “shop” to pick up our cruisers and trendy lime green traffic vests, we made our mass exitus onto the streets, ready to take it all in.

While the day tour was informative and note worthy, the night tour was the most entertaining and memorable. Riding the streets of Paris at night is incredible, pedaling past busy cafes, and enjoying a pit stop in Il Saint Louis for ice cream and entertainment (a small band on a bridge composed of a bass player, a guitar player, and a Gatsby era woman keeping the rhythm of every beat).  After the ice cream, its back to the streets to bask at the colors of the city and the beauty of the French culture.

The itinerary of the Fat Tire Bike Tour was everything and more than what we expected.  However, the most entertaining part of the tour came as a result of my superior biking skills.  While on this particular bike tour you are required to stick together, even if you would like to inadvertently lose some of those adventurous travelers I mentioned earlier…(is it necessary to scream “Braziiiiilllll!!!!” at the top of your lungs?  Like the lime green vest didn’t already give them the hint that you were a tourist…)  Back to my superior biking skills…well, you see, while I was carefully riding from the street to the sidewalk, I unknowingly cut off my future husband and left him in utter pain and embarrassment on the corner of a busy intersection.  I did not recognize this until halfway down the block and, only noticed when he did not respond to a question I had asked him.  As I looked back, here he was holding his shoulder, struggling to stand, propped up with the assistance of a French gentleman and a fellow traveler whose lucky responsibility it was to be the “caboose” of our group.  While I can only think these men probably wanted to tell Paul “welcome to marriage”, their kindness and willingness to help was much appreciated.  They helped him get back on his bike and he reluctantly rode the final block and a half to the entrance of the much-anticipated boat tour, all the while keeping his distance from my bicycle…

When you are a little girl, dreams are filled with images of prince charming, ivory dresses, baby carriages, and white picket fences.  Sometimes those dreams come true and sometimes they become much more.  Picture this…over a thousand feet of sparkle standing before you, twinkling hues of gold and silver, towering above men playing boules in the park and couples sipping wine whilst reclining in the grass…You’ve just indulged  in pomme frites (french fries), entrecote au poive (steak), and vino in an authentic French cafe and, after a rather enjoyable evening, you are strolling with a full stomach toward the Champ de Mars to watch the boats pass by in all their splendor.  It is at this moment, your boyfriend, Paul, stops you before this spectacular monument to let you know just how much he loves you.  Unexpectedly, he gets down on one knee and tells you that he has a present for you (as if Paris wasn’t enough of one) and says in order to have this gift, you must promise to spend the rest of your life with him.  Now this is not what you dreamed of as a little girl…its much more.  He slides a beautiful diamond around your finger and asks you to marry him, and you think, just how did he get this diamond past security and onto a plane without me knowing?  But those are just details and you’ll dissect those later…at this moment all that matters is that YOU just got engaged to the man who defines happiness in your eyes in one of the most romantic cities in the world.