A cycling superhighway! The double bike lane on Rue Lafayette allows you to move at lightning speed through Paris's asphalt-rich 9^th and 10^th arrondissements – and break a sweat. Along the way, take a moment to enjoy a pitstop at some of the squares and exceptional trees.

1. A steeple-high Caucasian walnut tree

From the start of Rue La Fayette in west Paris, just push a little to the north, and you'll soon find yourself on d'Estienne-d'Orves Square in front of the Sainte-Trinité church. Look up! The huge 26-meter-high Caucasian walnut tree shades the children's playground below. Its rough-barked trunk measures 3.40 meters in circumference. When standing in front of the church –built during the Second Empire and currently under renovation, with only its snow-white steeple emerging from the scaffolding – you even have to step over the colossus's roots, between which small pools formed in the wake of a heavy storm. Its massive, low, almost horizontal branches are the stuff of dreams for hut-lovers young and old. Once you've enjoyed this breath of chlorophyll, it's time to get pedaling.

2. Well-hidden pines

Head in the general direction of the chic Saint-Georges Square, bordered to the north by the vast mansion where France's former president Adolphe Thiers (1871 - 1873) lived at the end of the 19^th century. Sneak around the back into what used to be his private gardens, now known as Alex-Biscarre Square, to sit under the black pines. Six of them stand tall and straight. Their needles are not particularly majestic, but there they are, nonetheless. The two comfortably sprawling fig trees beside them are already loaded with fruit. The tiny birdhouse a few meters up looks uninhabited, but the square is so quiet that you can hear chirping from all sides in the branches.

3. Pear trees on asphalt

To get back on Rue La Fayette, the cycling highway, take your feet off the pedals a little further down and push your bike up Rue Milton, a section of which has been pedestrianized to create a school section in front of the Milton comprehensive school. No car traffic here. The pavement was resurfaced with a light-colored coating to reduce the heat island effect, the process of heat being trapped by the city's sealed surfaces that makes heat waves unbearable. It's even more effective when trees play their role as natural air-conditioners. On Rue Milton, four young pear trees, already tall and adorned with particularly delicate flowers, sway in the wind. Much to the satisfaction of a shy blackbird flitting back and forth between the planted flowerbeds and fruit trees' high branches.

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