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Europe is well ahead of the U.S. when it comes to putting environmentally-friendly concepts into action.  In France especially, utility prices are high — encouraging people to save money and fuel — energy-saving products line the shelves of grocery stores, and healthy, sustainable living has become an affordable part of European life.

The introduction of public bicycle rental programs across the country is a part of this movement and has greatly increased the level of city cycling in France.  The bikes are cheap to rent, run on human energy (no carbon emissions!), and a great way to zip through traffic in a busy city.  Paris’ program is now the largest of its kind in the world.

France is a country that can be explored through many forms of transportation: by plane, by train, by car and by bus.  I’ve covered most of these in previous posts.  Once you’re in your destination city, however, cycling can be the most fun and efficient way to get around and explore your new surroundings.  Read on to find out how to use the public bikes in France.

If you’re looking for longer-distance cycling and a bit of outdoor adventure, there are numerous options for guided and unguided cycling tours.  These may include vineyard tours, multi-day journeys from town to town, or simply a day-long ride through the countryside.  You don’t have to be Tour de France ready to be up for a cycle tour, and it’s one of the most enjoyable and active ways to explore a region of France.

City Cycling · Paris · Nantes • Country Cycling · Cycle Tours · Cycle Trips

City Cycling

Major cities across France provide public cycles for city-wide use.  Here’s an overview of public bike rental programs in a few of those big cities.

Paris

Paris is not known for being an especially bike-friendly city.  Places like Amsterdam and Copenhagen with their wider roads, bike lanes and dedicated bike paths are much easier to navigate than the crowded streets of Paris.  The City of Lights could also be called the City of Aggressive Drivers (although it doesn’t compete with Rome on this front), and bike lanes often double as bus lanes, but there are thousands of brave cyclists who chose to share the road with motorized vehicles on a daily basis.

If the main streets of Paris are somewhat intimidating to cycle, the ease of accessing bikes for short-term use makes up for it.  Vélib’ (short for vélo liberté) — a network of bicycles for hire across the city — was first introduced in 2007.  Today, 20,000 bikes are available at over 1,600 station across the city.

Vélib' bikes in Paris

The bikes come equipped with locks, reflectors, lights, and a front basket.  Unfortunately, they don’t include helmets, so you have to provide your own.  You can pick a bike up at any station in the city and return it to a completely different one.  This is great for cyclists, but it has created a bit of a problem with bike distribution in certain parts of the city.

The top of Montmartre near Sacré Cœur, for instance, is a very popular place to pick up a bike.  It’s a huge hill with narrow streets and little automobile traffic, and as long as you know where the stairs are and to avoid them, why wouldn’t you want to ride down into the city on a bike?  Of course, very few people pick up bikes at the bottom of the hill to cycle up.  One of the early systematic problems with Vélib was unavailability of spaces at some stations and of bikes at others.  These days, special trucks are used to move bikes from overcrowded stations to empty ones.

Each station has a pay terminal, and the cost breaks down like this:

The 4-euro fee applies for up to 24 hours of use.  If you come to a station to return your bike and it’s full, the terminal will allow you an extra fifteen minutes to reach another station.

There is a catch.  Isn’t there always?  In order to rent a bike in Paris, you have to have a credit or debit card with an EMV-chip.  Although these are ubiquitous in cards from France and most of Europe, they are no longer used in most cards from North America.  If you’re visiting friends in Paris, you may be lucky enough to borrow a card.  If you’re a tourist with neither a European bank card nor a friend or acquaintance in France, and you wish to cycle around the city, you will have to seek out a privately owned bicycle rental shop where the rates are likely to be higher.

Nantes

Nantes is one of my favorite cities in France.  I lived in a small town in Normandy when I first arrived in France to teach English, so any big city accessible by a relatively short train ride was a welcome change.

Unlike Paris, Nantes is very bike-friendly.  The streets are wide and many are equipped with bike lanes.  The city is big, but not as big as the capital, and it’s possible to explore most of it on bike.  There are parks and museums, the city is bisected by the beautiful Loire river.  Paris also has abundant parks and natural spaces, but Nantes is a more manageable city.

The prices for bike rental in Nantes are even more reasonable:

Again, the 2-euro fee applies for up to 24 hours of use.  Unfortunately, the same bank card restrictions apply as with the Paris station terminals.

At this point, most major French cities have these public bike systems.  I’ve only used the ones in Paris and Nantes, but I encourage you to use them in other places!

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Country Cycling

If you decided to embark on a longer cycling journey while in France, the first thing you’ll want to do is choose a region.  Many cycle tour companies websites give descriptions of rides throughout all regions of France, so even if you’re planning to go it alone, use the sites as a resource for planning your trip.

Cycle Tours

If you prefer to put the planning in the hands of an expert and pay for it, cycle tours are the right choice for you.  A variety of options is quite easy to find online, but it’s important to know what you’re looking for.  Most companies offer all-inclusive packages that cover the bike and equipment, accommodation each night, and transport for your baggage from one place to the next, but it’s important to verify these factors so you don’t end up high and dry.

Some tours include optional wine tastings, city museum passes, and cell phone rentals.  A 5- to 6-day trip may start at around 550€, so it’s best to get as much out of it as you can.  Be sure the distance per day and type of riding is at your ability level, as well.  Most tours are designed to move at a fairly relaxed pace, so there isn’t too much to worry about.

Cycle Trips

If you’d rather try it on your own and/or like doing things on the cheap, the first thing you need to do is buy a map.  Not just a regular map.  A cycling map.  There are many options out there, but the best thing to look for (once you’ve chosen your area of travel) is a detailed, large-scale road map, especially one that shows unpaved paths and smaller lanes.

IGN (Institut Géographic National) makes a very popular series of maps that are well-liked by cyclists.  The Top 100 series of 20 maps allow tourists and locals alike to “pursue outdoor leisure activities (walking and cycling or mountain biking), when on holiday or over a weekend.”  They are highly rated by several cycling website and are quite affordable at 5.90€ each.

Renting a bike will cost you around 40€ a day, depending on where you pick them up and drop them off and what accessories you might need.  Saddle bags are helpful if you’re carrying anything more than a small backpack.

As a point of encouragement, my boyfriend and his brother, neither of whom speak French, went on an unescorted two-week cycling trip through the south of France.  They put a lot of kilometers on those bikes, and they managed to get by on one phrase: “Une chambre, deux lits.”

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“One room, two beds.”

If they can do it, you can do it, so get out there and cycle!

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