Well, Paris is not a sample of France nor Europe at all.
It's like if you were discovering the Midwest with a journey in New York. Not really representative...
Paris has edicted anti-motorcycle regulations these last years: one about the Low emission zone, that bans XXe century bikes from the city (except on evenings) and the parking that was free for bikes is now to be paid.
This led a lot of users to convert to recent bikes - and even to electric ones.
Last but not least, the speed limit is about to be set at 30 km/h everywhere.
So what's the point riding in Paris, with a K or anything? It was a PITA before, it' worse today.
I was offered last year a job in Paris, with a very decent pay, x3. I declined. It maybe a nice city to visit, not to live in.
Apart from this small asshole point on the map, the rest of the country (and Europe) is very nice to ride with a K, or anything.
BMW owners are prone to think that their bike is the best and that it's the most sold. It's not, Honda and Yamaha scooters still are on the top of the sales. They hate this fact...Nevertheless, Honda sells worldwide in 3 days as much bikes as BMW does in one year.
And most of BMW today are not sold to owners: they just lease it for 3 years, with service included, and their society pays the bill...
tax regulations here are very conciliant with independant workers!
So it's also a way to avoid reliability concerns of recent models, by changing the bike once the 3 years term is done. Annual mileage is very, very low in France: less than 3000km (1860 miles) per year. So the bikes are given back with less than 10 000 km...a pair of new tires and the dealer tries to send them as second hand bikes. But their customers are not interested in (they want the last model, the more expensive the best), and those who would buy 2nd hand are very disappointed when the realize the cost of the maintenance and the lack of reliability. BMW dealers backyard sheds are full of bikes, 10 to 3 years old, almost new...but impossible to sell.
The BMW company does not care at all. There's many years they make much more money with financial services than with selling bikes.
But the fact is that on the road, you can see a lot of recent BMWs: their owners are usually able financially to travel, or are retired so they can ride as they like.
Back to the K100 in France: the bratstyle pandemic was very severe here. 90 percent of the remaining K's had to suffer from tailchopper wanabee custom builders assaults. You won't see them in the street in Paris or anywhere: they're only on instagram (oh , yes, once a year at the Wheels & waves cloning disaster festival).
There's a wind of panic now , with the periodical inspection supposed to be in place next year: prices of these beauties are collapsing from 100 times their value to only 50 times their value. Such a bargain!