“Hello, I’m Jonathan”, “I’m Avril”, “And this is Fleur Bleue”. This is the way they introduce themselves. Indeed, this tandem bike has a name. No wonders seen the place the bike occupies in the couple. But can we really speak of a trio?

It’s a month now since they have adopted this proud electric blue mount. Since then, it has been true love: “We use it every day”, they declare, almost in chorus.

The desire of acquire a tandem started from a simple observation. Many friends have told us: “You’re always together. Why then having two bikes and not one?”. I found the idea very romantic, confides Jonathan.

They spotted Fleur Bleue on a website dedicated to second hand objects selling. “The guy who sold it to us was most enthusiast to ride on a tandem but his wife less so”, laughs Avril. “This doesn’t suit every couple”, they recognize.

On the contrary, they have found their stability. He takes the front seat and she sits on the back. This is normal as there is a size difference between the two seats. And this suits them as well: Johnathan prefers being in front as Avril is more reckless in her driving.

Installed this way, they travel around Brussels for a month now. “We sometimes have to take detours to bring one to a given place”, says Avril. “A short while ago, Jonathan needed to go to the theater. We tried to figure out the ride. In the end, I went to see the play with him”, smiles the young woman.

“We both pedal in the molasses”

Should Avril need to take administrative actions, her partner joins her. “We both pedal in the molasses and this encourages me to takes those administrative steps as well”, he declares. If someone needs to wait, he or she takes a book: “We have both doubled our reading time”, notes Jonathan.

As for shopping, Fleur Bleue proves to be an ideal companion. It has good saddlebags which enables them to stack bags on the luggage rack and Avril can still manage to take a box in her arms. “The person who sits in the back is hands-free. So, she can write some messages or butter some toasts”, jokes Jonathan.

“Less arguments”

They assure they’re having less arguments now they possess this one bike. Jonathan can now control the speed. Before that, Avril was riding faster and this may have engendered tensions. “On the tandem, I ride on a minimum rhythm and, I don’t know how, but she can ride faster at the back and I take advantage of her energy”, he jokes. “I can see he rides slower than me because one day, I took the tandem with my mum and we rode much faster”, confirms Avril.

Tandems in Brussels remains scarce. Avril and Jonathan notice that their passage gives good mood to people and therefore they’re happy too. It’s lovely to observe children’s reactions. They feel like they're hallucinating: “One bike? Two bikes? One bike!”, smiles Jonathan.

They both currently don’t work but they feel that a tandem will guide their job choice. “We’ve already told ourselves that we should work at the same place”, analyses Avril.