Getting around central Paris

Yesterday I learned why Paris has so many churches: So you can pray before you cross the street. Some of the crosswalks have no traffic lights for pedestrians, and you have to be careful crossing those. Coming home this evening across the Place de la Concorde at rush hour required a great deal of alertness, and in general, you can't daydream as you walk when you come to a crossing. The traffic does move with alacrity, and you must as well. However, you have to keep your wits about you when you cross the streets in Bloomington, too; that's just a general feature of being a fragile biped sharing the streets with cars.

All in all, I would say that the parts of Paris I have seen so far are very pedestrian-friendly. For one thing, I have never had to walk in the street because there was no sidewalk. Every street has a sidewalk (which is more than I can say for my neighborhood back home), and most of the bridges across the river that I have seen so far have ample room for pedestrians. The sidewalks are often quite generous, with sand or gravel shoulders of their own for getting around slower-moving foot traffic. Many crosswalks have not only walk-don't walk signals but also warnings to pedestrians about unusual traffic patterns to beware of. This morning's walk along the river followed alongside heavy and sometimes complexly patterned automobile traffic, but as long as I paid attention, it was a much more tranquil experience than navigating near some of the busier streets in Bloomington. (Well, having the river there didn't hurt. But still...)

I have seen a decent number of bicyclists here, and I've noted a fair number of bicycle lanes (but I haven't been paying particular attention to those). Only one of the bicyclists I've seen so far was wearing a helmet. The motorcyclists all wear helmets, which is good because they tend to drive with a great deal of verve and panache, i.e., like maniacs (especially on the peripheral highway, which we saw only on the ride from the airport).