All the rues in Lyon are perpendicular. I don't mean that they are each perpendicular to each other, that would mean a new dimension for each road and I don't even think Prof. Stephen Hawking can imagine hundreds of dimensions.
So as I'm riding it's all right angle, left angle, right angle, wrong angle, capitalist angle, socialist angle, fascist angle, communist angle, droit angle, gauche angle, correct angle, incorrect angle, write angle, read angle, kept and left angle.
The hardest part about cycling in France is that everything is on the wrong side, as in not the right side. Interestingly this is more of a problem with one way streets than two way streets. (Of about the roughly 10 different streets I go down to work, 6 are one way, two are two way and two are pied-way.) The reason is that on a two way road it is blindingly obvious if I am on the wrong side of the road. Whereas on a one-way road it is different. For two reasons: firstly people are not expecting a bike on their left (ever seen a bumper sticker in Britain "Think Bike when turning right!" ? Equivalently "Pansez velo quand tournez gauche" not quite the same). Secondly bikes are allowed to go against the flow of traffic down a one way road, as long as its in a 30kmh zone (I think - famous last words). And a bike on bike head on collision is a very rare creature but spectacular if seen in it's natural urban habital. Sadly the creature is very dangourus to human, can be fatal when in contact and serious mental scaring for those who seen one at it's full desruction. Obviously no WWF protection for this rare creature.
I still haven't quite figured out the lights. In London I knew to the milisecond when the lights were going to change. I knew when I could jump them. I could read the other driver's minds. Obviously now when I read them it's all in French. All this just to shave those life changing nanoseconds of the journey. But no mastery flowing my way quite yet.
Toodlepip
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