Planes, Trains…. and Rollerblades?

            I love France. How do you not love a country where scooters and rollerblades reign supreme?

            Growing up, I could never figure out how to skateboard. All the shifting and changing of foot placement, I just couldn’t ride the damn things.  This was back in the days of Tony Hawk’s Pro-skater, when everybody wanted to dress and act like a skater. Needless to say, not being able to ride a skateboard was a huge blow to my already-fragile 10-year-old ego.

            So I learned how to rollerblade, and I was actually pretty good at it. I remember immediately asking my parents for a pair of rollerblades after watching that Disney movie “Brink” (don’t even try to pretend that you don’t know what movie I’m talking about).

            Then I found out that rollerblading wasn’t considered “cool” any more. In fact, being a rollerblader made you a certified loser, or gay. I dropped rollerblading quicker than a dress on prom night.

            Which brings us back to France. Either France didn’t get the memo about rollerblading not being cool any more, or they just don’t care (more likely). You see people with rollerblades on the metro, in grocery stores, in school hallways.  It’s not just young men either, I see girls from 10-35 with rollerblades all the time. For some reason, I think it’s kinda sexy too. Nothing like a sexy French girl with long legs gracefully gliding along the sidewalk with a baguette. I know, I’m a freak.

            You also see a lot of people riding scooters. Not the motorized “mo-ped” kind, but the foldable razor scooters. Like rollerblades, scooters were cool for a little bit too…. cool for ten year olds. The funny thing is, it’s mostly older people or middle-aged people riding them here. I get a kick out of seeing a 50-year old woman zipping around on a scooter with helmet and full body armor. Absolutely hilarious.

            The amount of people cruising along on rollerblades and scooters leads to some pretty messy, but hilarious, crashes. Awhile ago I saw a dude on rollerblades not stop in time and run smack into a tree in front of a group of cute French girls. The other day, I watched as a tiny Yorkshire terrier darted in front of an older Frenchman on a scooter, sending him ahead over heals into traffic (the dog didn’t seem to be hurt). Only in France.

-Gregulator