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In recent years, Paris has been transformed into the world capital of cycling. This shift allows French and international tourists to discover certain sights and landmarks in a new way.
Last June, Paris welcomed around 3.8 million tourists, about 3% more than in the same period in 2025, according to the tourism office.
And as visitor numbers rise, more and more travellers are opting for bikes instead of buses or walking to get around.
“Since Covid, cycling in Paris has really taken off. Many more people want to do guided bike tours and hire bikes. It has become a hugely popular way of discovering the city”, says Michaël Tosello, who runs guided bike tours in Paris and notes that many routes outside the city have also been created. And with good reason: cycle paths now link Paris to London, Mont-Saint-Michel and Spain via the Scandibérique.
“It’s wonderful”
To meet this growing demand for cycling tourism, numerous companies have sprung up. Notre-Dame, Concorde, the Champs-Élysées, the Eiffel Tower… they offer comprehensive excursions that take in the city in just a few hours.
For bike guide Jean-Baptiste Blondiaux, this is the most appealing option because it lets visitors see more places. “In ten minutes by bike, you can see two different monuments. On foot, that’s impossible”, he says. “I think you can see a lot more of Paris. You see the city, people walking past and all sorts of things between stops. That’s why it’s so interesting, I think.”
For the Buss family, from the United States, cycling was the perfect option given how little time they have to visit the capital. “It’s nice just to be in the moment. And then you can come back and look at things a second time later, with a bit more time to take in all the history and culture of it all”, says Jamie Buss, who is visiting with her husband and their three children aged 22, 18 and 16.
The family are on a 12-day trip around Europe. After a week in Tenerife, they arrived in Paris and chose a three-hour guided tour of the French capital. “It is a great way to get to know the city. It’s hard to take everything in. But with JB’s explanations [the guide, editor’s note] and the fact that you’re outdoors while you do it all, it’s wonderful”, says father Mike Buss.
Today the capital has more than 1,000 km of cycle lanes. But City Hall is thinking bigger: in the long run, Paris is expected to have around 1,500 km of infrastructure, making the city even more accessible to active travel.