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In recent years, Paris has turned itself into the world capital of cycling. This shift allows French and foreign tourists to discover certain sights and monuments in a whole new way.
Last June, Paris welcomed around 3.8 million tourists, about 3% more than over the same period in 2025, according to the tourist office.
And as visitor numbers rise, more and more travellers are choosing the bicycle rather than the bus or walking to get around.
“Since Covid, cycling in Paris has really taken off. Many more people want to go on 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 points out that many routes outside the capital have also been created. And with good reason: cycle paths now link Paris to London, Mont-Saint-Michel or Spain via the Scandibérique.
“It’s wonderful”
To meet this growing demand for cycling tourism, numerous companies have sprung up. Notre-Dame, Concorde, Champs-Élysées, Eiffel Tower… they offer comprehensive excursions that let visitors tour the city in just a few hours.
For Jean-Baptiste Blondiaux, a bike guide, this is the most appealing option because it allows people to see more places. “In ten minutes by bike, you can see two different monuments. On foot, that’s impossible”, he says. “You can see a lot more in Paris, I think. And you can see the city, the people walking and lots of things between stops. That’s why it’s so interesting, I think.”
For the Buss family, from the United States, the bike was the perfect option given how little time they have to visit the capital. “It feels good just to be in the moment. And you can come back later and look at things a second time and have a bit more time to absorb the history and the culture of it all”, says Jamie Buss, who is visiting with her husband and their three children aged 22, 18 and 16.
The family is on a 12-day trip around Europe. After a week in Tenerife, they arrived in Paris and opted for a three-hour guided tour of the French capital. “It’s an excellent way to discover the city. It’s hard to take everything in. But with JB’s explanations [the guide, editor’s note] and the fact that we’re outdoors while doing all this, it’s wonderful”, says the father, Mike Buss.
Today, the capital has more than 1,000 km of cycle lanes. But city hall is aiming higher: in the long term, Paris is expected to have around 1,500 km of infrastructure to make the city even more accessible to soft mobility.