How we overcame mobility issues in post-Olympics France

Paris invested millions of Euros to better accommodate the disabled, and bringing a portable scooter — from an Ohio company — goes a long way in Lille

Crowds begin to gather in Lille’s Grand Place the day before the Braderie flea market, the largest in Europe, closes the streets to the neighborhood. (Janet Podolak)

A mobility scooter was my unusual companion on a recent trip to France with my daughter Sascha.

“Never again,” she’d told me after our visit to Morocco in February. “We’ve got to think of a better way to travel together.”

As she’d helped me navigate the souks of Morocco, Sascha’s forearm became bruised from my grip. It was the kingdom of a thousand steps, according to a fellow traveler. Many of those steps were without railings, spaced irregularly and of different sizes — a recipe for a fall.

Now in my 80s, I’m not as steady on my feet as I once was, and I’m slow when walking with a cane. Many times I’d grabbed her arm for balance, certainly not intending to bruise her.

I wanted to join her early-September visit to France for the famous Braderie in Lille, an annual 48-hour, around-the-clock flea market that’s the largest in Europe. It’s believed to have begun in the Middle Ages when servants sold their masters’ unwanted items.

But a plan was needed so we both could move around freely — and without further bruising.

A queen of research, Sascha had found the sturdy ZiiLif mobility scooter online, and soon it was ours. While airline-approved, its lithium-ion battery must be removed for air travel, and it weighed just 37 pounds and folded into a compact suitcase-size bundle for checking at the aircraft’s entrance. Its easy-to-remove battery had its own blue bag for carrying aboard our Air France flight. Tagged for gate-check, the scooter awaited when we disembarked in Paris, ready for me to unfold and drive up the jetway.

We’d be traveling to Lille by train from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, a city not widely known as friendly to those with disabilities. However, the 2024 Olympics had been followed by the just-ended Paragames, and we knew Paris had invested 125 million euros to make the city more accessible to disabled visitors.

Sascha Nelson and Janet Podolak, daughter and mother, pose for a photo on the third-floor selfie platform at Galeries Lafayette in Paris. The space was created so visitors can get photos of themselves in the huge 1912 Art Deco stained-glass dome in the center of the department store. (Galeries Lafayette employee)

The French, who seem to love their multifaceted bureaucracies, had established an area for disability assistance in the lower level of the CDG airport. Signing in with our pre-purchased train tickets to Lille, we were assisted with our luggage and got one-on-one help boarding the right TGV high speed train. My very well-organized daughter had purchased our rail tickets and accommodations in advance online with everything on her phone, so there were no language challenges or paper tickets to deal with.

Washrooms for French restaurants still remain down a flight of stairs, and the Paris Metro, with its citywide network of subways, was not served everywhere by elevators, so it wasn’t part of our plan. But public buses are clearly marked for disability access with a door bearing an easy-to-find button that, when pressed, lowers a ramp for easy access by a wheelchair or scooter. Just inside are perfect scooter parking places. And disabled folks travel free.

We’d planned our Lille arrival two days before the roads were to be closed for the Braderie so we could become oriented. But when taxi drivers in line at the Lille train station saw us with the scooter and two large, although mostly empty, bags, they declined to take us. So Sascha folded the scooter into its much smaller travel mode, and soon we had a ride to our Adagio aparthotel near the centrally located Grand Place.

More than 62 miles of Lille streets are closed for the Braderie, and entire neighborhoods are designated for certain flea market offerings, such as children’s toys, comic books and antiques. Sascha, an inveterate crafter, had certain purchases in mind — things that wouldn’t have to be shipped.

Streets are closed and filled with crowds during the annual Braderie in Lille, France. (Emma Ezzeddine for Hello Lille)

Our large two-room Adagio suite had a kitchen so we could prepare a few of our meals. Aparthotels have an almost cult-like following for the France-based Accor hotel group, attracting thrifty independent travelers. The Adagio’s exterior was barely recognizable as a hotel, but public areas near check-in included an attractive spot for breakfast, comfy chairs, board games, a pool table and foosball. Everything was clean and well-kept, and we were in the middle of the Braderie action.

More than 2 million people pour into Lille for the annual flea market, so I needed to get up to speed quickly in negotiating the scooter through crowds. Because pedestrians didn’t see me at my lower level, I led rather than followed Sascha. Many people in France still smoke, and I was right at cigarette level as they strolled, peering into vendor booths.

When I accelerated, the scooter easily could go over curbs up to 2½ inches, but I usually followed sidewalk lanes for wheelchairs with no curbs at crossings, keeping the speed at Sascha’s walking pace. Purchases were stashed in a straw market basket we’d attached to the back. I wore my waist pack, with its water bottle, and strapped my cross-body purse across my chest so my hands were free for the right and left throttles on the handlebars. Push one way to go forward and the other way to back up. A 5-foot turning radius made it easy.

Writer Janet Podolak waits on her scooter opposite the bustling Gare de Lyon train station in Paris. (Sascha Nelson)

It soon became second nature. I sometimes had to use the horn when our assertive “Pardons” weren’t heard and people walked in front of us, but most were politely curious as their children gazed in apparent envy at the blue, almost toy-like vehicle.

The scooter was designed to be unintimidating by a retired Ohio State University professor, explained Michael Luchisan, marketing director for Columbus-based ZiiROBOT when I reached him by phone. Created in 2017, the scooter is largely marketed online via Amazon.

“He wanted it to appeal to those who wanted extra mobility in their lives but didn’t want something that looked like a wheelchair,” he said. “So its toy-like look is perfect.”

Accessories such as a headlight, cup holder and cell phone holder are available, as is an extra battery. Charging is done overnight, and each charge gives about 10 miles on the scooter.

The scooter has no suspension system, so it can be a rough ride on cobblestones and gravel, Luchisan said.

“We’re working to make it lighter still so we can add a few pounds for a suspension system.”

This man from Lille, France, posed for a photo after helping lead daughter-mother tandem Sascha Nelson and Janet Podolak on the latter’s scooter through the crowds of the annual Braderie, the largest flea market in Europe. (Sascha Nelson)