I seem to remember that, when I first visited France in the 1970’s, every teenager seemed to zoom around on mopeds. The name Mobylette springs to mind. 
I don’t seem to see any teenagers - or anyone else - on these nifty little mopeds today. Perhaps they all have cars.
It strikes me that a Mobylette, or something similar, would be ideal for short journeys and for light shopping given, if memory serves, that they were equipped with a decent carrier on the rear.
I must say that the idea of owning one, or a VeloSolex, appeals.
Were you a moped rider in your youth? (Photo?)
Is there a modern equivalent of the Mobylette?
It’s called the Citroën Ami.
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Not just the young, although there is a really annoying teenager just above us who makes a helluva racket rapidly going up through the gears on the downward slope. There is at least one man over retirement age with a Solex in the village too.
If I was to hanker after that, and I might, I would bring back into use the 3 wheeled Ape van powered by a scooter engine that I have in the garden. With a cabin to protect me from the elements and a bench seat which could accommodate a slim passenger and a cargo space far larger than I need for anything it is a real temptation.
But where would I put all the ‘stuff’ that is currently in it. 
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Plenty of mopeds that look like motorbikes now in my neck of the woods judging by the noise they make on the main road. Older people seem to like the chunky looking scooters of both two or three wheels. I think the old image of something looking like a bicycle but with a tiny noisy motor has gone, things have gone more modern looking aka funky moped.
This had to be done.
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I was forunate enough to be part of a school choir tour of northern France three times in 1970s. As accommodation we used to be farmed out to local families in the towns & villages that we performed in.
I thought I’d died & gone to heaven when, aged 14, myself & one other boy were put up in a family with several teenage daughters.
The icing on the cake was that they all had mopeds which were freely lent for us to ride into/around town. As someone who was counting the days until my 16th birthday when I could do the same thing in England you can appreciate that this occasion is firmly etched on my memory (sadly, not the town involved though).
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Most of the youngsters (and some older people) use trotinnettes. Saw one on a country road today.
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Ghastly dangerous things… for everybody around
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This is the nearest I’ve got to a moped. There is a Mobylette which looks very similar, the great grandfather of the French mopeds that you are talking about. I think that in recent years the traditional moped market has been engulfed by small wheeled low capacity scooters. For the sort of local journeys you suggest my E-bike is great.
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There are a few still around, but most of the contemporary ones have some sort of composite mouldings to make them look sleeker, I mean “go faster” 
Living in the countryside, they are still used as a means of transport by a number of teenagers in and around the villages where we live.
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That’s a beauty 
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Perhaps an e-bike is the descendent of these old mopeds? Both types are motorised bicycles . . . .
I have said exactly the same in the past. A photograph of the two together shows far more similarities than differences.
Damn, you girl racer, you ! 
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Just thinking about it, they must have been a really popular brand in the day, coz my ex had one just like that.
They were all the rage and there were lots about, mine was originally my cousin’s. Lots of my friends painted the tank weird colours to be recognisable.
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Yamaha was definitely the two-stroke brand to have - in the UK at least the notorious “Fizzy” aka Yamaha FS1E was the moped du jour:
…probably due to Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene winning lots of moto GP races on Yams in the late 70s and 80s.
I remember riding one back from the bike dealer for my girlfriend at the time.
I of course was (and still am) a Honda rider. 
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No, they were simply a couple of steps ahead of the competition in both looks and performance. I was one of the first to be affected by the change of age from 16 to 17 for a motorcycle licence and the FS1E arrived to fill the new hole in the market. A lot of my friends owned them but they were way out of my price range. I roads quite a few though. They had a different model name to start with, possibly the SS50 but I think Honda used that name. They are very collectible now. Like you I am a Honda rider and am still not tempted by contemporary Yamahas although they have some great bikes in their range. I rode my father’s Yamaha YDS7 250 a bit as a teenager and that was stunningly fast but I preferred the torque and economy of my CB250G5.