Ride Through Paris On Bike Trails and See Areas Painted By The Impressionists Mapped By France Vélo Tourisme

Renowned for its cycling culture and history, France is famous for the Tour de France as well as other pro races. If you’ll be visiting the country soon and you want to bypass the typically busy areas around Paris (or other parts of the country) bustling with tourists in a casual, fun, and healthy way, then you should consider exploring the city via its miles of bike trails through the France Vélo Tourisme Association.

Who Is the France Vélo Tourisme Association?

France experiences massive tourism every year. Most of this tourism occurs via car, bus, train, and foot traffic around Paris and other areas of the country. The Vélo Tourisme Association’s desire is to make bicycle tourism in France a sustainable practice that’s available to everyone, from the casual to the everyday bicyclist, at zero cost.

The company’s six main goals are as follows:

• Participate in the organization of the national bicycle tourism offer
• Produce specialized content for bicycle tourism: texts, cartographic data
• Design websites to promote the national offer in France and abroad
• Develop the Accueil Vélo brand
• Enhance services and products related to bicycle tourism
• Distribute the content to French and foreign customers

The organization partners with Accueil Vélo. It focuses on “accommodations, bike rentals & repairs, restaurants, tourist offices, sightseeing sites and leisure activities located along cycling routes...”

The France Vélo Tourisme Association offers bicycle tourists 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles) of mapped bike routes throughout France. That has allowed it to create 17 itineraries that give cyclists, tourists, and even locals ways to get around Paris and other areas of France exclusively by bicycle.

Type of Rides France Vélo Tourisme Offers

France Vélo Tourisme Association, as already mentioned, offers cyclists many miles of bicycle routes in all areas of the country. When you visit its website, you can choose items from a drop-down menu to define the type of cycling you want to do.

• Type of route – Input whether you wish to ride one-way, mountain bike, or do a round-trip ride
• Level of difficulty – You can tell the system you are a family of riders, someone who rides often, or someone who cycles often (probably meaning more than your basic hobbyist)
• Duration – One day, half day, 1 week or more (staying at hotels or camping along the way), or a short trip.
• Theme – Choose what you want to see along the way: Canals, intimate rivers, seaside, mountains, etc
• Destination – Other than Paris, you can select specific regions of France you want to see by bike.

Paris, The Seine, and Views of The Impressionists

Paris is an amazing European city with lots to see and do: museums, food, nightlife, and sites like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. You could see all of these on foot, by train, tour bus, etc. But to get more cultural immersion and see things most tourists eschew, traveling around the city by bicycle is the best way to go.

France Vélo Tourisme has two routes around Paris for cyclists looking for a different take on the City of Light. One is around 30 miles (about 3 hours to complete), and the other is 17 miles (about two hours to complete). Both routes are over easy terrain that takes you along the Seine. You’ll even get outside the reaches of the city, so you can see the places the Impressionists created their works. These are both considered one-day excursions.

Last Thoughts

It’s amazing to think that there are alternative ways to see major European cities. It would definitely be more fun to go around Paris or other parts of France by bicycle versus being stuck around lots of tourists and long lines to visit museums or historic sites. If you want real cultural immersion, rent a bicycle and feel more connected to your trip at your own pace. France Vélo Tourisme Association makes that possible.