Dilemma. It’s a sunny Friday afternoon in Paris, it’s l’heure de l’apéro, you fancy a drink of something suitably chilled en plein air, but the café terraces are all jam-packed. Well, fret no more – we’ve found a smartphone app, snappily called Appero, that will see a bottle of rosé, pastis, or other goodies such as cheese or snacks, ferried by bike to wherever you are in the French capital.
Besides individual drinks, cheese or snacks, you can also order boxes that group together a number of items for that perfect Parisian early evening experience - €10, for example gets you a half bottle of pastis, a bottle of water, ice cubes, a crusy baguette, tapenade and a bag of artisan crisps; not bad value, we reckon, given what the same might cost outside a café in a prime location.
And should you’re evening be going unexpectedly well, you can even order condoms.
One neat feature if ordering using the Android or iOS app is that you can upload a picture showing your surroundings plus yourself or the group you are with – so no awkward standing around wondering whether that guy on the bike over there is your deliveryman, with the app’s location feature and the snap, he’ll find you.
You can find Appero on the Apple App Store or Google Play, or place an order through the company's website.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.