Another lovely look-see thing about our times in France is the beautiful bicycle spotting. Here and thereabouts they appear around the town; perfect specimens, essences of cycle – lazily waiting by the bakery, dozing at the afternoon pétanque, or part-abandoned at the harbour’s edge. These are the bike-y bikes – the Richard Scarry versions. Like the handsome blue cartoon-ness of this Provence-based Peugeot snapped in town a couple of years ago:
I’ve long been on the lookout for a bike that’s just-so bikey – and being in France again had me girding my loins on the issue (apologies if you’ve just pictured that). Yesterday, galvanised by the imminence of today’s (coughs) significant birthday, and buoyed up by a good piece of work delivered to a happy new client, I stayed the course on an eBay auction and am now the owner of an engineered thing of heart-melting beauty. The photo is from its seller, and it may be some time before I get to collect this 1970s gem born in the Viennois factory of G. Ginet; but it’s a picture well enough to see that it’s quite The Bike-iest Bike in the World. And I am a very happy – however old – man.
Fisher Lane 
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