The Merry-Go-Round Mafia - Part 2

Parenting in Paris

Note: This is Part 2 of a previously published story.

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I stopped the bike in disbelief, and I turned to see the kids’ crestfallen faces. This merry-go-round was our stalwart, and we were dumbfounded by its disappearance. I quickly explained to the kids that on the back of our “Prestige” loyalty cards were addresses for other manèges. They were apparently all part of the same network as our beloved but absent Arkansas. The kids’ eyes widened with new hope.

One of the carousels listed on the card was fairly close if we just headed to the center of Paris: Place Saint Paul, next to the metro of the same name, in the Marais. Going west meant moving up in status, and it would be a straight shot down to the Bastille and then through the underestimated beauty of the rue Saint Antoine, with its tiny plaza boasting a Lenôtre traiteur.

We coasted down, enjoying the freedom of Sunday’s car ban in the center of town. My kids sang as they sat facing each other on the back seat of the bike, mimicking their face-to-face position in the double stroller they’d ridden in as babies.

The double stroller.

Liberated from the pollution and unwieldiness of motor vehicles, bicycles of all shapes and sizes filled the streets in a two-wheeled free-for-all. The emancipation from cars was one thing, but there were other dangers: less experienced cyclists typically weave all over the road, heedless of other riders.

Swerving around those cyclists is something I do only when riding alone; I take far fewer risks when the kids are on the back. Of course I’m responsible for their safety, even if the physical dangers of the road are easier to recognize than the ones we encountered when they were babies.  

Once, when they were 14 months old, I’d left town for a day to pick up an antique Jacob Delafon bathtub. The trip itself wouldn’t have seemed frivolous if my son hadn’t come down with a cough the night before, but I left Paris by train at dawn anyway, and planned to be back home again that night.