Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [227]
ESPACE ST-LOUIS Map
01 43 26 93 99; www.espace-saint-louis.com, in French; 51-53 rue St-Louis en l’Île, 2e; 1/10/20 sessions €18/150/240; Pont Marie
Take your pick of keep-fit courses at this fun fitness space on an island: pilates, Hatha or Ashtanga yoga, Qi Gong, salsa, samba, flamenco, modern jazz. Pay €10 to try a one-hour cour or buy a carnet. Recommended are the classes aboard a péniche (barge) on the Seine; details online.
VIT’HALLES BEAUBOURG Map
01 42 77 21 71; www.vithalles.com, in French; 48 rue de Rambuteau, 3e; admission €25, 10-entry carnet €199; 8am-10.30pm Mon-Fri, 9am-7pm Sat, 10am-7pm Sun; Rambuteau
This squeaky-clean health club gets fabulous reviews from local residents and blow-ins; it follows the Les Mills fitness programme.
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ACTIVITIES
Entertainment weeklies Pariscope and L’Officiel des Spectacles Click here list what’s on.
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CYCLING
Plenty more Parisians are pedal-powered thanks to Vélib’ (Click here for details); for imaginative and unusual cycling itineraries suggested by Parisians, subscribe to its monthly online newsletter and read the blog (http://blog.velib.paris.fr/blog, in French).
Including tracks in the Bois de Boulogne (16e) and Bois de Vincennes (12e), Paris has 370km of pistes cyclables (cycling lanes) running throughout the city, as well as a dedicated lane running parallel to about two-thirds of blvd Périphérique. On Sunday and holidays, large sections of road are reserved for pedestrians, cyclists and skaters under the scheme Paris Respire (below).
The Mairie de Paris (Map; 39 75; www.paris.fr; Hôtel de Ville, 29 rue de Rivoli, 4e; Hôtel de Ville) is an invaluable source of information for cyclists: it allows free downloads online at www.velo.paris.fr of its carte des itinéraries cyclables (map of cycling itineraries) mapping every Parisian cycling path; pick up a paper version at local mairies. This is also the place to find itineraries, rules and regulations detailed in its free booklet Paris à Vélo (Paris by Bicycle). More detailed is Paris de Poche: Cycliste et Piéton (Pocket Paris: Cyclist and Pedestrian; €3.50), sold in bookshops.
For information on guided bicycle tours, Click here.
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PARIS BREATHES
Now a well-established operation, Paris Respire (‘Paris Breathes’) kicks motorised traffic off certain streets at certain times to let pedestrians, cyclists, in-line skaters and other non-motorised cruisers breathe. While it drives its usual traffic jams and pollution to other spots in the city instead, it makes Sundays very pedal-pleasurable.
The tracks listed here are off-limits to cars on Sunday and public holidays. For updates on exact routes and detailed maps www.velo.paris.fr.
By the Seine: from quai des Tuileries, 1e, to Pont Charles de Gaulle, 12e, on the Right Bank; and on the Left Bank from the eastern end of quai Branly near Pont d’Alma, 7e, to quai Anatole France, 7e (from 9am to 5pm).
Latin Quarter, 5e: rue de Cluny and from place Marcelin Berthelot by the Sorbonne to the rue Mouffetard market via rue de Lanneau, rue de l’École Polytechnique and rue des Descartes (from 10am to 6pm).
Bastille, 11e: Rue de la Roquette and surrounding streets (from 10am to 6pm July and August).
Montmartre and Pigalle: all the streets in Montmartre, 18e, encircled by rue Caulaincourt, rue de Clignancourt, blvd de Rochechouart and blvd de Clichy (from 11am to 7pm April to August, 11am to 6pm September to March); and rue des Martyrs, 9e (from 10am to 1pm).
Canal St-Martin, 10e: a particularly scenic area around quai de Valmy and quai de Jemmapes (from 10am to 6pm winter,