Are you an adult who never learned how to ride a bike? Well, it’s not too late. The Vélo-école (Bike School) in the 20th arrondissement of Paris offers a free 2-hour initiation to bike riding for adults. After you overcome your initial fears regarding bike riding, you can sign up for 10 hours of lessons for 30€. The Vélo-école will provide you with a bike adapted to your morphology and a yellow safety vest. An experienced instructor leads the lessons. No worries if you don’t speak French. The class mostly consists of imitating the appropriate gestures to adapt when riding a bike and the instructor also speaks English and Spanish. Classes take place every Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m in the Fougères district near la Porte des Lilas and the association Cyclofficine.
The Vélo-École du 20ème is new on the bike class scene, offering lessons to the public since June 2016. Anne-Lise, a long time cycliste and volunteer bike riding teacher La Vélo-École de Montreuil, founded the association. For Anne-Lise, being able to ride a bike can be a source of autonomy and freedom for adults who never learned when they were younger. Her goal is to provide small group classes (there’s a maximum of six students per class) at an affordable rate so that students can learn at their own pace.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Vélo-École du 20ème or signing up for a class, send an email to anne-lise@cyclocoop.org. Sign-ups for Saturday classes must be done before Friday at noon.