Any trouble w/ bike rental in Paris? Did you enjoy them? They look fun!

Velib machines may not work with US credit cards. (They didn't in the past - not sure if something's changed in the last year). You need to have a card with a chip. I don't know if any US cards have them. The deal is that you take a bike from a station and you have 30 minutes to use it and park it at a station - but it has to be parked within 30 minutes to avoid any additional charges. I did notice that sometimes there are no empty racks at a station. So you have to allow for that too. The idea is to encourage suburbia to commute by train, then be able to use the bikes to get to their final destination in the heart of Paris. From their website, it would seem that the longer you have the bike, the higher the rate. An extra hour is €1, an extra 2 hours is €4. If you want to get around the city by bike, which is not a bad idea at all, you should look into daily rental rates. This will also allow you to park the bike wherever you want.

However, day rentals are available from bike shops.

Thanks, Frank. That's what I meant, you just said it much better.