bicycling in Paris

Here’s a custom, and a “don’t” - twenty-seven years ago, we enrolled in a weeklong bike tour with Blue Marble, which I don’t think is operating any more. We started off riding through downtown Paris, heading eventually for the Champagne region. We were told by the group leader to follow him, and not stop, even when we were riding through an enormous, uncontrolled intersection, at morning rush hour. Traffic initially kept its distance as the group pedaled in a line, but then as the last person in the group made his way through, one car started driving AT him, but we later learned the driver had planned to pass one tenth of a second after he biked past, missing him by a centimeter. He stopped on his bike, in traffic, certain that the car wasn’t going to stop.

Well, the car did stop, mere inches from the bicyclist, which held up traffic for everybody, although nobody got run over, either. Although this was nearly 30 years ago, my guess is this custom is still in place, and the “rule” is in effect even more nowadays than back then: on a bike, Don’t stop - hold your ground, and rest assured that no car will make a good ornament of you. Keep riding at a steady, predictable pace, Just don’t be surprised when cars seem to be heading at you; they are actually heading just barely to the side of you.

After that, we’ve never ridden in downtown Paris again, but did rent bikes at Versailles, which was the perfect way to tour the grounds around the palace, and cover a lot of it.

Yes, there are organized bicycle tours. We took one by Paris Charms and Secrets and enjoyed the stories they told us as well as the places we saw (although it was 4 years ago). We took it on Sunday so there was probably less traffic.

You cannot bicycle in parks -- I saw a couple of smug tourists with those tweedly little tiny wheeled suitcase bikes get pulled over and ticketed in the Luxembourg Gardens. You certainly cannot bike on the Coulee Vert which is often a rather narrow walking path. I see bikes on the metro but it is difficult and pretty abusive to everyone else and of course you have to carry them up and down stairs. More common to see bikes on the RER.

You can look for French Mystique. He is an American expat who offers private bike tours in the countryside as well as customized tours in Paris.

https://www.frenchmystiquetours.com/all-our-tours

Bicycles or scooters are not allowed in the Metro, bus, or tram with the exception of folded bikes and scooters.

Bicycles can use the bus lanes in Paris, but the bicyclists go the speed of the buses. Bicycling in the city has evolved in the past thirty years, but these are city cyclists getting to work and elsewhere, not road cyclists.

thanks for clarifying on the metro -- I see bikes on the metro but it always looks like a truly terrible idea -- I also see, dressers, giant plants, bookshelves and of course gigantic strollers -- it always blocks the aisles and just generally is a nightmare.

syrmatthew,
I don't bike, but whether or not helmets are required (I am guessing they are), I wouldn't ride without one, whether in Paris or the countryside. Why take a chance?

Here is a useful blog on biking in Paris

https://secretsofparis.com/practical/bicycle/

Don’t stop - hold your ground, and rest assured that no car will make a good ornament of you. Keep riding at a steady, predictable pace, Just don’t be surprised when cars seem to be heading at you; they are actually heading just barely to the side of you.

Unless it happens to be a tourist driving and too busy finding his way ( or gawking at the scenery) to dodge cyclists

Lots of people ride without helmets in Paris and almost no one using the Velib rentals uses them.

Judy’s right, although helmet wearing seems to be on the decline, both from what I’ve observed in Europe and in the U.S. Riders in Full Kit, on expensive road bikes, with clip-in shoe cleats and wearing spandex bike shorts and colorful jerseys (some that match pro racing team uniforms) pretty much universally ride with helmets. It’s part of the “look,” part of the uniform, but also smart when you’re riding at high speeds and/or with uncertain traffic. Helmets weren’t a “thing” 30 years ago (skiing as well as bicycling), but now that they’ve been developed, and are lightweight and affordable, why wouldn’t everyone wear one while riding?!? Seat belts in a car, helmet on a bike - just common sense.

But not having a helmet seems to be a “look,” too, seemingly for urban riders in regular street clothes. I’ve seen parents riding with their young children - the kids have a helmet, but Mom or Dad don’t (do as I say, not as I do, and forget the poor example being set), and the under-30 crowd (“hipsters?”) seem to seldom have a helmet. Then there are the motorcyclists at high speed in leather jackets and pants, maybe with a bandanna tied around their head, not wearing any helmet but with one hanging on the bike! Why bother?

A helmet might not save someone hit by a car or truck, or who wipes out in a bad situation, but without one, any injuries are likely to be more severe. Wear one if you have the opportunity to ride a bicycle.

Children under 12 are required to wear helmets; adults, not so much. A few days ago I was in a cafe at the corner of Rue Saint Antoine and Rue de Lesdiguieres and I saw maybe 10% of the adult riders wearing a helmet. I was once in a terrible bicycle accident in New York City and suffered no head injury because my helmet absorbed the impact so I am always curious about helmet laws and helmet use for bicycle riders. I was thinking about renting a bicycle for the day but decided against it because of how crowded the bike lanes were; I did not want to get in the way of the rapidly moving Parisian riders. I have been going to Paris since the 1980s but did not go between November 2019 and October 2021, and when I arrived in October 2021, it felt like "whoa what happened" because there were way more bicycles than I was used to seeing in Paris. What happened was that the city expanded the biking infrastructure and encouraged biking. Since October 2021, I have been to Paris many times, including this month, and every time I feel like I see more bicyclists. Recently, I read an article that said that in some central streets in Paris, there are more bicycles than cars. My son rented a velib bike without a helmet and also rented from a bike store that provided helmets and did some the rides described at https://www.freewheelingfrance.com/where-to-go/paris-bike-routes.html. There is also a link to a map of Paris cycling lanes at this site.