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Grand Départ host Mont St-Michel "the least cycle-friendly place in France"

Bike tourists must walk last 3km to tourist attraction and pay same parking charges as motorists

Mont St-Michel provided a spectacular backdrop to the start of Saturday’s opening stage of the Tour de France, but if that’s inspired you to head to Normandy with your bike, be warned – they’re not welcome at what is France’s most visited tourist attraction outside the Paris area. One campaigner has called it "the least cycle-friendly place in France."

France’s body that administers the country’s national monuments has used the Grand Départ to encourage even more tourists to visit the island and its abbey, which already welcome around 3 million people a year.

But as Le Monde reports, during peak tourist season from the start of May to the end of September, bikes are banned between 10am and 6pm on the bridge, opened in 2014, that now links Mont St-Michel to the Norman coast.

That project was accompanied by the building, on the mainland 3km away from the island itself, of a car and coach park, with visitors required to walk across the bridge, or use shuttle buses or horse drawn carriages – but not bicycles.

Moreover, any tourist arriving by bike has to leave it at the car park, and is required to pay the same fee - €11.70 for 24 hours – they would have to fork out had they turned up in a motor vehicle.

The 50 or so people who live on the island, as well as those who work there, are exempt from the restrictions, but have to ride on the pavement, creating conflict with pedestrians.

One resident who uses a bike as her sole mode of transport, Inès Lebrec, rejected suggestions by the local authority that there was no space for bike parking, and highlighted the demand for it.

She said that wasn’t just from people from afar – Mont St-Michel is on three major cycle routes, including Eurovelo 4 which runs from Ukraine to Italy – but also “local people, inhabitants of Brittany or Normandy, who take advantage of Sundays in the spring to go for a bike ride locally.”

That’s something that can also benefit the owners of the restaurants and souvenir shops on the island, with a report on bike tourism from the French government last year finding that cycle-tourists spend more than the average person, with an outlay of between €64 and €105 a day.

Ahead of Saturday’s Grand Départ, Jean-Michel-Blanchet, who heads local cycling campaign group  Velocité, said that while a ban on bikes may be needed in July and August, there was no reason to ban them at other times of the year.

“Mont-St-Michel, the least cycle-friendly place in France welcomes the Tour de France. It’s ridiculous,” he said, quoted on thelocal.fr

“This is a problem for locals who go to work by bike and also for tourists on cycling holidays,” he added.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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6 comments

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alansmurphy | 7 years ago
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Clickbait.

 

A very pretty place that has residents already having to accept the scourge of tourists, and if there's hundreds of pedestrians ambling up and down the causeway then there is potential danger. 

 

The TDF link is tenuous, I don't expect closed roads or the ability to pass whichever way around a roundabout i please either...

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dassie | 7 years ago
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Google maps streetview doesn't seem to show there is a ban on cycling the last 3km...  i.e. signpost showing path for walking/cycling.   http://tinyurl.com/zg955n7

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enas replied to dassie | 7 years ago
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dassie wrote:

Google maps streetview doesn't seem to show there is a ban on cycling the last 3km...  i.e. signpost showing path for walking/cycling.   http://tinyurl.com/zg955n7

The ban is in place only during the day in high season. Here's official information:

http://www.bienvenueaumontsaintmichel.com/en/preparing-your-visit/arrivi...

alansmurphy wrote:

A very pretty place that has residents already having to accept the scourge of tourists, and if there's hundreds of pedestrians ambling up and down the causeway then there is potential danger. 

The place hardly has any resident, other than workers who might spend the night there. It's basically one large touristic venue. So you'd think they would happily accept the "sourge of tourists", especially those who spend more money, such as cyclotourists, according to those sources.

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brooksby | 7 years ago
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Quote:

Moreover, any tourist arriving by bike has to leave it at the car park, and is required to pay the same fee - €11.70 for 24 hours – they would have to fork out had they turned up in a motor vehicle.

So does that mean if I turn up with a bike then I get an eight foot by fifteen foot space with a sheffield stand in the middle, all to myself, if I'm paying the same as a motorist?

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enas replied to brooksby | 7 years ago
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brooksby wrote:

Quote:

Moreover, any tourist arriving by bike has to leave it at the car park, and is required to pay the same fee - €11.70 for 24 hours – they would have to fork out had they turned up in a motor vehicle.

So does that mean if I turn up with a bike then I get an eight foot by fifteen foot space with a sheffield stand in the middle, all to myself, if I'm paying the same as a motorist?

No, this is a misunderstanding of the original article. Cyclists don't have to pay anything to lock their bike and use the shuttle bus. Still, making cyclists walk the last 3km is not very welcoming indeed, and a bit counterproductive when, according to the original article, cyclotourists spend quite more than average on the Mont Saint Michel.

Avatar
brooksby replied to enas | 7 years ago
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enas wrote:

brooksby wrote:

Quote:

Moreover, any tourist arriving by bike has to leave it at the car park, and is required to pay the same fee - €11.70 for 24 hours – they would have to fork out had they turned up in a motor vehicle.

So does that mean if I turn up with a bike then I get an eight foot by fifteen foot space with a sheffield stand in the middle, all to myself, if I'm paying the same as a motorist?

No, this is a misunderstanding of the original article. Cyclists don't have to pay anything to lock their bike and use the shuttle bus. Still, making cyclists walk the last 3km is not very welcoming indeed, and a bit counterproductive when, according to the original article, cyclotourists spend quite more than average on the Mont Saint Michel.

Really? Darn it - was looking forward to not having my brakes squashed...

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