Paris in a Wheelchair

Today we got to experience Paris via a wheelchair! The Paris metro system was then of course out of the question because most of the stations require stairs. Luckily the bus system is quite wheelchair friendly and goes all over Paris, so that would become our main mode of transportation today. And with some Googling and some useful websites for touring Paris while in a wheelchair we were able to figure it out.

Buses were really easy to use. Typically the bus driver would see that you have a person in a wheelchair, and extend the ramp in the middle of the bus. There is also a button to press in case they don't. A ramp extends to the curb, and you just roll right on up. The bus driver will ask where you want to get off at (so he knows where to extend the wheelchair ramp), so it's helpful to already know the route.

There's a space specifically for wheelchairs to stay in, though the only bad part of the experience is there isn't a seatbelt, and Paris bus drivers drive like crazy people, plus the brakes on the wheelchair were kind of messed up, so it was a struggle to keep my Mom from rolling away. But it worked out. Once you reach the bus stop, the ramp extends out again, and voila, you've made it!

The only tricky part is that some bus stops are not wheelchair accessible according to the route maps (marked with a yellow triangle) which I assume is because they're on a traffic island or something with no way off. 

Thank goodness we live in a flat with an elevator (due to Kara's leg issues, which are WAY better now) and so we could get my Mom up and down. Unfortunately like most Parisian elevators, it's incredibly small, so it doesn't actually fit her in a wheel chair. She had to get out of it and use some crutches to get up to our floor.

The wheelchair was also fairly easy to get. There is an online option,  we found by Googling, but we just visited a few of our local pharmacies to ask about a "fauteuil roulant". One of them said they could get us one, which was 22 euro for a week, plus a 200 euro cash deposit. We did this on Friday, so it took a day for it to arrive at 4pm today (Saturday) then.

We ended the day with a French sampler feast! I got 3 different kinds of cheeses (soft, hard, and moldy (Roquefort)), some really good wine from Bordeaux, and French bread from our neighborhood boulangerie.