cycling holidays are popular with the French

Stopping over for the holidays, Éric and Virginie decided to discover the vineyards of the Côte de Beaune (Côte-d’Or) by bike. “There are very nice little circuits, we go through the vineyards, there are not too many cars, it’s quite flat”rejoices Eric. “There are plenty of things to discover by bike, so it’s great”, adds Virginia. Florian Garcenot, manager of “Bourgogne Evasion by Active Tours”, rents an average of 180 bikes per day in high season, a figure that has been increasing since 2019. “Before the crisis, we had a lot of international clientele. The clientele is changing, we have more and more people who come from the Paris region, a fairly young clientele”he comments.

Rental can be for one or more days, with a guided tour or by mountain bike, and even by scooter. To adapt, Florian had to invest in a hundred electric bikes. “The demand has exploded in the last three years. Now, cycling is likened to leisure. So the world is becoming flat, with the electric bike“, he notes. With more than 900 km of cycle routes and greenways, Burgundy is a flagship destination. Shopkeepers are delighted with it, like Mireille Bernard, restaurateur: bicycle tourists represent 30 to 40% of its clientele.