Rando Roller

This past Sunday, C & I participated in the weekly Paris Rollerblade event held by Rollers & Coquillages. It's something we've been talking about doing for a while, and we picked the perfect day.

They start out every Sunday at Bastille at 2:30pm on the dot, and usually get back somewhere aroudn 5:30-6pm. The parcours are usually about 20km long and cross all of Paris. This week's was 22.9km long:
We weren't sure where exactly to meet up at Bastille, but once we got there, we pretty much just had to follow the crowd.
And then we were off, with I'd say about 2,000 other rollerbladers. It was a pretty amazing experience to skate down some of the main boulevards in the city - Paris was literally at our feet.

There were also several policemen stopping traffic and helping maintain order along the way, as well as an amublance following the group in case anyone got hurt:
Plus several volunteers, including this guy who I named "The Roller Nazi":We didn't complete the whole thing because, quite frankly, 23km is really frickin' LONG. We left at the half-way point though and rollerbladed back home. It was a ton of fun, and something we'll definitely do again. Most people were at about the same skill level as we were - probably intermediate rollerbladers (I think the really high-level skaters probably take part in the Friday night one). Plus everyone was really friendly, and there was a wide age-range of participants, from young to old. The weekly event is free, but you can also become a member of the association (25€ for adults, 20€ for students/unemployed folk, 12€ for kids under 12). Members get access to special events, such as a once-a-month Saturday parcours plus some Saturday stages de technique. They also organize 3 roller weekends outside of the capital (and sometimes abroad). And just as an FYI for anyone looking to get involved, they also seem to do a lot of fund-raising during these events - for example, this past week we saw a lot of people wearing "we're skating for organ donation" t-shirts. And next Sunday's event will be for the World Food Program's Annual Hunger Day.

Also, in case anyone is interested in picking up a pair, there are a lot of used ones for sale on Ebay annonces or on LeBonCoin. Or otherwise we've got a pair of size 39 womens rollerblades that we're selling for 15€.