Notes On Cycling In France

Well, all good things come to an end. And the same is with cycling in France. I have made my last rides in the french countryside.

The second to last ride was a three hour ride toward Grenoble on the Voie Vert 63 route which I have ridden a few times before. This ride was during the most recent heat wave to hit Europe. The high temp only rose to 99F as far as I could figure, but it felt a lot hotter than that. Of course, I rode in the hottest part of the day. I just seem to have a knack for that, or rather a curse! Despite the hot weather, it rained in the evening to cool things off somewhat. This rain may have been nice in Chambery, but it reeked HAVOC for the Tour de France. Foul weather caused hail, flooding, and mudslides on the course to Val D’Isere and resulted in a shortened course for the riders. And again the next day as well.

My very last ride was on Saturday. It covered the same route as the previous ride, but the weather was MUCH cooler. Thank goodness for that. Rain was in the forecast, so I made sure I was finished around 1PM. It turned out to be conservative since the rain held off until around 7:30 in the evening. These last rides served no real greater purpose other than to go out and enjoy the french countryside a few more times. Well, and that I was getting antsy for riding in general.

So now, my bike is safely picked away in the box ready to start heading back to the good ole USA. But I wanted to share a little bit of what riding in France, and even more specifically in the Savoie Region of France is like.

Riding around this area seemed very safe to me. Without a doubt, the safest place I have ever ridden. There are just so many dedicated cycling routes to choose from. These routes are either separated, dedicated paved pathways for cycling only, or the most remote of back roads that exist here in France.

When you do encounter a vehicle, they are very courteous toward cyclists. I think this stems from the fact that the french seem to embrace cycling as a viable alternative to driving. I think it is part of their culture, but also has something to due with the absurd price of gasoline!

Everyone in France rides a bike. Maybe not quite as universal as the Dutch, but they are very avid. There are a lot of very serious riders too, at least they looked serous with their fancy riding kits and top end racing machines (A “kit” is the outfit that a cyclist wears) And there are lots of non-serious riders with bikes that come in all sorts of flavors. Lots of nice bikes, all the way to old “beater” bike ridden by the poor students that are going to the university here. And every kind of bike in between. Commuters ride bikes, shoppers ride bikes, families ride bikes, retired people ride bikes. There are road bikes, mountain bikes, cross bikes, cruiser bikes, and actually, an awful to of e-bikes (Bikes assisted with electric motors) that pass me up with the easiest of efforts that drive me kind of crazy. E-bikes are the bikes of choice by the French Postal Service, and food curriers like Uber Eats!

When I come to an intersection, the default is to let the bikes pass first. Being an American cyclist, I DO NOT TRUST the driver of cars at intersections. This has caused some minor problems though. At intersections, I usually stop and wave cars through the intersection first. Well, they try to wave me through. And then we sort of have a stand off arguing with hand gestures about who is going to give in first….. But the take away and my point is this: French drivers recognize bicycles and are serious about yielding the right of way.

Of course, I did find places where I would not ride my bike. The winding canyon roads that wind through the valley floors (as opposed to the roads going over the passes) seemed unsafe to me, especially between Grenoble and the village of La Grave. But there were lots of people who did not think twice about it and rode them anyway. Cars drove pretty fast on these roads and in general, they have little to no shoulder to ride on. And the center line on the road seems to only be a suggestion of where to drive. The sports cars and motorcycles go over the center line OFTEN! And then there were the tunnels! There are a lot of tunnels. Long tunnels…. and I really did not feel comfortable riding through them at all. For all of the above reasons, plus the fact that there was no bail out option for a cyclist. Just solid rock walls on the road edge. And sometimes, the lighting is pretty dim.

If cycling in the rural areas of France is safe, then cycling in the city of Chambery is even safer. There is almost no reason to ride on a street that is not either a separated bike path , a bike lane that is delineated by curbs, bollards, or other barriers, or another cases, just plain old bike lanes. You almost never have to mix in with traffic unless you needed to make a left turn on the street.

The most intriguing thing about cycling in Chambery though is the fact that aliens must live here in large numbers. They have pictures of them on all of the bike lanes which they must frequent at some time or another, but I have yet to see one in real life. But I keep looking.