The Joys of Cycling France’s Roads and Cycle Routes
Justin Postlethwaite encourages readers to enjoy France’s cycle routes – and asks drivers to be considerate
The old adage ‘don’t judge me till you’ve walked a mile in my shoes’ sprang upon me quite unexpectedly earlier this summer, and prompted an instant volte-face of my existing prejudices. As I pootled along a rather decrepit French country lane à vélo – sans Lycra and at an escargot’s pace, I should add (I am not a serious cyclist) – in a sudden moment of clarity, it dawned on me that French cyclists are hard done by. Until then I had, on many occasions, harrumphed and gently cursed the two-wheeled road-blockers hogging the middle of the route instead of sticking to the edge like they should. ‘Stay in your lane,’ I’d mutter under my breath, even if they did not have a lane to speak of – dedicated cycle lanes are limited to bigger roads in France, and the pecking order on remote roads is certainly not as clearly delineated. But there on the cracked and potholed edge of a rural lane, I understood why so many cyclists veer towards the middle. I was doing it myself as a self-preservation method – to avoid being unceremoniously ejected from my selle thanks to a nid-de-poule (‘hen’s nest’ – pothole) or sudden, unexpected slope down into the ditch alongside. I was certainly not doing it to annoy drivers.
A LEISURE PURSUIT FOR ALL
It’s easy to see why cycling is so popular in France, especially among those of us who are not spring chickens. Once your genoux have gone, out go the more springy, twisty sports like tennis or football, with easy-on-the-knee cycling a much preferred leisure pursuit – this is cardio in the country without ligament grief or meniscus strife. Plus you get to inspect the majestic landscapes and hear the birds. Approximately 35% of French people ride a bicycle at least once a month, according to a 2024 survey by the Ministry of Ecology – faire du vélo is truly a part of the nation’s collective psyche.
Needless to say, France is a major cycling tourism destination, with 9m cycling trips a year. Once you leave the highways and byways, the network of less stressful bespoke cycle paths and greenways is truly astonishing (head to en.francevelotourisme.com to start planning your trip). Along a whopping 51,150km of pistes cyclables, there are routes for all abilities and fi tness levels, with everything from two-hour to two-week itineraries available, coastal or country, passing lighthouses or châteaux. If do you need a helping hand, just hire a rider-assist electric bike to get you up those pesky collines, while long-distance rides farther afi eld can be intercut with rail travel.
Shoulder-season cycling is the best bet in my view – for one thing, it’s cooler. However, I predict that once this year’s Tour de France is over (the peloton rolls onto the Champs-Élysées on July 26), every middle-aged Frenchman or woman who owns a bike will dig out their skin-tight Lycra shorts, wheel their trusty – though barely used – €2,000 steed out of the shed and start clogging up the country lanes and cycle paths. And good for them.
Of course, there is a minority of two-wheeled road users with a misplaced sense of entitlement in terms of hogging the middle ground. But my message would be: be nice to vulnerable cyclists when you encounter them on a French byway, and be patient – you never know, one of them might be me! As for my own change of heart about being nice to cyclists, another saying seems apt: ‘a wise man changes his mind sometimes, but a fool never’.
Lead photo credit : Cycling in france. Col du Glandon, French Alps to the summit.
