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Show Bicycling Has Become a Popular Pastime in France So popular has bicycling become in France that the French railways make up entire trains of bicycle cars, the same as mail trains, to handle the more than 7,500,000 bicycles bi-cycles now running rampant over the hills and dales, towns and countryside coun-tryside of that nation, where one out of every six of the population owns a bicycle and stays on it most of the time from the cradle to the grave. Increased production of low-priced low-priced cars, the vast network of motor busses, reduced rates on railways, rail-ways, have all failed to lure the French, men, women and children, from their favorite sport bicycling. And, where they go. near or far, with them goes their bicycle, until, literally, they crowded the passengers passen-gers right off the trains during weekends week-ends and vacation seasons. Bicycle vacationists go directly by train to the center of the distant region chosen for the tour and their bicycles will follow by special train within 24 hours. Or. by shipping one day ahead. wiU be awaiting the owner. After the holiday is over, the bicycle can be sent back the same way. In Paris the visitor cannot he,p but be amazed at the thousands of bicyclists who weave their blissful way through traffic, single or tandem, tan-dem, in groups of 10 or 20, apparently ap-parently with no thought of all the motor traffic around them. In the Seine department in the Paris area alone, there are more than 400,000 bicycle owners, but the north of France has even more, 430,000. The revenue from the bicycle owners own-ers in France is nearly 100,000,000 francs in taxes. |