Riding along the tram tracks is the mark of Bordeaux bicyclists. Riding on a sidewalk is prohibited (unlike in Israel), whereas riding in the driveway is suicidal (very much like in New York). The tram tracks, on the other hand, are just a part of the road where the cars are not allowed.

I was warned more than once about the danger of driving along the tram tracks: first of all, it presents certain difficulty to leave them quickly when noticing an approaching tram. Secondly, the trams are quiet and the accidents when a bicyclist did not hear the coming tram are not unheard of.

I saw today a man fly head-over-heels from his bicycle while riding on the tram tracks. Luckyly for him, there was no tram nearby. He was quite far from me and I couldn’t even really see whether this was a man or a woman. As I approached I was considering in which expressions to offer my help, but when I was close he already raised himself, although I could see that he had difficulty standing on his feet.

I expected that the man would now walk his bicycle (which could be damaged after such a fall) to the sidewalk and continue his way home by foot (granted that he has not broken anything). But at a short range I saw that this had nothing to do with his intentions – he was trying to mount back onto his bicycle! In fact, he was completely, obscenely drunk, which explained both his difficulty to stand on his feet and his rather unsuccessful attempts to climb on the bicycle!

It crossed my mind that a drunk man trying to ride bicycle on the tram track is bound to get himself into trouble… but I didn’t really want to deal with a man so drunk in a cuntry whose customs and language I barely know. Therefore I decided to trust the old Russian wisdom that drunks are lucky and would get out unharmed from the situations in which a sober man would die three times over.

Drunk French

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