anyone tried velo bleu yet?

I%26#39;ve seen a fair number of velo bleu bikes in use around Nice but i haven%26#39;t tried them myself yet.

There are free trial days %26#39;Journée Découverte%26#39; available till wed 22nd july

http://velobleu.org/

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I think as a Destination Expert for Nice it is incumbent on you to mount up, go for a spin and report back on the experience! ;^)

Rob

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Last Thursday I came down the Haute Corniche and headed for the prom. Not for the first time, I was struck by the feeling of being a celebrity when riding a racing bike in France. Motorists waited to see where I was going to go and allowed me to manoeuvre, change lanes etc. I found myself doing things that I would not have dreampt of in England. Many pedestrians looked directly at me to see if I was someone famous. Sadly, I am not.

However, I believe that the level of consideration was because I was dressed like a racing cyclist. I don%26#39;t believe that someone on an ordinary bike would be treated like this and I for one would not be keen to ride a velo bleu until there is serious expenditure on bike lanes.

Earlier in the day a motorist made a serious attempt to kill me when I was cycling on Cap Ferrat, by moving to my side of the road to overtake a lorry. I escaped a head on collision only by jumping the bike on to the pavement. The car was a Russian registered Porsche 4X4. I would imagine that in Russia such behaviour would be routine!!

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Glad you managed to escape ok - I had several similar near misses in the UK when living in York despite it being supposedly bike friendly.

The good news is that there has been substantial investment in cycle lanes in Nice and more appearing all the time and more to come over the next 12 months

The velo bleu system isn%26#39;t aimed at outside of Nice cycling so its just the maniacs driving within Nice itself to worry about

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I have 3 bikes, one Mountain Bike, one Race bike and one city bike and use one of them daily (I use to go to work with my city bike that has more than 45 000 kms). Unfortunatrly, I never felt as a celebrity here except when I stop at the Red color traffic lights ;-)

I believe that the fact that you are dressed like a racing cyclist make you more visible. That%26#39;s recommended but not always sufficent in this area. The problem with the %26quot;Velo Bleu%26quot; is that users will not have Helmets and this could be dangerous due to the fact that there are cars, Buses, cyclists, pedestrians everywhere and sometime it makes me feel that we are in the jungle.

By the way, yesterday I have use my Mountain bike to visit the Verdon Canyon, it was fantastic ;-)

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My daughter and I have been out and about on them today. She%26#39;s a teenager and wears a cycle helmet, I%26#39;ll probably get one for myself quite quickly. We went on the roads a bit this afternoon and cars were quite patient with us for which I was grateful. Once on the prom, you needed a sharp eye and anticipation for the pedestrains but as we were going fairly slowly, it was fine, good fun actually. We went from the Port to the Negrsco, rue Rivoli, to see the Harry Potter film and then cycled back again. There was a bike stand right by the cinema.

The machines don%26#39;t always read your card and there%26#39;s sometimes no bikes available or no spaces to park and sometimes, it just doesn%26#39;t work at all but like all these things, when it worked, it worked very well.

I did the bike tour of Nice lasy year and there are quite a few bike lanes within Nice already, with more planned this year.

LondonBob - glad you are alive to tell the tale - your story made my blood run cold.

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Thanks allaboutNice,

I do quite a bit of cycling in the hills but that was my first venture into Nice on the bike in many years. Didn%26#39;t know there were bike lanes and didn%26#39;t notice any. Perhaps when the new tram line is built they will close the prom to cars as they have done in Jean Medecin?

Bob

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Cobalt06,

In the UK I obey the traffic laws just as if I am in a car but I feel it is actually dangerous to do this in Nice and surrounds, as no one expects you to do so. I did get stopped by the police a year or two ago for coming down the Moyenne Corniche at over 70 kph but they just patted me on the back and sent me on my way.

Bob

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Cobalt.You surely didn%26#39;t cycle from Nice to Verdon Gorges? Long way. Bob were you wearing shades and the yellow or green (a la Mark Cavendish) jersey and if so no wonder the locals gave you the gaze. Did you have Red Bull in the water bottle? Did you stop to pose with tourists hanging on to your handlebars for photographs?

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Starting from Nice would have required 2 days since this area is located at 100 kms. For my trip, I took my car up to %26quot;Castellane%26quot; and then used my Bike from %26quot;Castellane%26quot; to the %26quot;Lac de Ste Croix%26quot;, then to %26quot;La Palud%26quot; , then the %26quot;Route des Crètes%26quot; and then back to %26quot;Castellane%26quot;, total was approximately 132 kms. Very nice views on the Canyon. Last Sunday was also the right day for this trip as the weather was nice with a bright blue sky ;-)

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Sounds absolutely wonderful.