4 Days Biking Through France | A Loop from Paris

I had a four-day bike trip planned across France, starting in Paris and ending in the Loire Valley — but things didn’t exactly go as planned. Between freezing temperatures, hauling a 30 kg bike box, and a few logistical hiccups, my first day turned into something completely different… and unexpectedly beautiful.

In this video, I explore Paris by bike — following the Seine River past the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and beyond — before catching my train toward Orléans, the gateway to France’s most famous cycling route: the Loire à Vélo.

If you’re planning your own bike trip through France, I’ll share what I’d do differently next time, including how to skip the chaos and get straight into the French countryside.

Next week’s episode: cycling through the Loire Valley’s castles, vineyards, and medieval towns — including a stop at the iconic Château de Chambord.

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📍 Filmed in Paris, France

I had an errand to run in Paris on 
a Wednesday and I needed to be back in Lisbon by Monday, first thing in the morning. My thought was to bring my bike and my bike 
box and try and see as much of this beautiful country as I could in that four-day span. Now, I 
made a ton of mistakes along the way — first off, trying to lug this massive bike box all 
around Paris. After doing a lot of research, I decided on the Loire Valley route, also 
known as the Eurovelo 6, which is often considered one of the most beautiful routes 
in all of France and is incredibly easy to get to from Paris. I could actually take 
the regional train starting in Paris and get to the starting point, Orléans, without 
having to pay anything extra for my bike. This reason alone made it 
absolutely enticing to me, but at the same time it’s also known for so 
many other things. Day one is mostly spent in Paris since I had a few hiccups getting 
to my actual starting point in Orléans. I’ll be honest — if your sole goal is to have the 
best four-day bike trip in France you possibly could, I think I did this all wrong. I’ve been 
to Paris before, and although it’s an incredible city for cycling, I wouldn’t normally choose to 
spend a full day biking through a big city when I could be riding through the French countryside, 
which is basically a cyclist’s paradise. However, if you’ve never been to Paris before, then perhaps 
you’d want to do exactly what I did this day, as it is an incredibly elegant city to bike 
through. Paris, as beautiful and elegant as it is, just doesn’t compare to the kind of cycling I love 
— open roads, rivers, and quiet countryside. Of course, if you’ve never been to Paris, it’s 
absolutely worth seeing. You might even want to start your trip the same way I did. For me, 
I booked an Airbnb as close to the airport as possible so I didn’t have to lug that huge box 
too much, but that also meant I was pretty far from the city center, which made getting to my 
train to begin the Loire a Velo (Eurovelo 6) a bit of a nightmare — and going out 
at night also a bit of a nightmare. To make things worse, ChatGPT 
gave me the wrong train info. I read recently that people are saying that 
ChatGPT could technically be getting dumber due to the fact that it’s running at 
a loss and they want to kind of reduce costs by reducing the memory they keep for all 
their users. I don’t know the truth to this, however I feel like I can kind of see it — where 
ChatGPT could not remember that although I came to France with a bike box, I was not traveling 
with the physical bike box on my bike trip. It kept suggesting trains that would 
allow my bike within the box only, and it was quite impressive to me 
how wrong it was knowing that it was planning my four-day bike trip. It 
truly thought I was just putting this box under my arm while biking. After asking 
it many times of my starting point — which was a small Airbnb near Orly Airport — and the 
route that would get me to Gare d’Austerlitz, which is the train that would take me to Orléans, 
which is the starting point of the Loire Valley, I got there and it was a tram. It was clear that 
my bike was not allowed, which meant I had to bike about two hours from my starting point all the 
way to the train station that would get me there. At that point, I just decided to make the 
best of it and spend the day exploring the city by bike. It actually turned out to be 
a really nice day. I rode past the Louvre, and fun fact — I happened to be there 
the same day it got robbed. It would be amazing if somehow the robbers are in 
this video because this channel could use some robbers in this video to just get me to a 
thousand subscribers. Please like and subscribe. Now, my Portuguese-climatized self was not 
expecting it to be so incredibly cold in France at this point of the year, so I was 
wearing every single piece of clothing in my bag. I know some of these people are wearing 
T-shirts, but they’re just showing off. And guys, I’m new to this, so if you 
could please like, subscribe, follow, that would be wonderful. I think I’m at 460 
subscribers today, so you won’t go unnoticed. I love the tunnel right here. This tunnel 
along the Seine River was really cool and it just kept going and going. As I was thawing out, 
I decided to just start riding — no real plan, just try and get to Gare d’Austerlitz, the station 
where I’d eventually catch my train to Orléans. Funny enough, on my very first ride I opened 
Instagram and realized one of my good friends was actually right next to me in front of the Louvre, 
where I had a crêpe and we had four beers — and the total was actually €67, which was quite 
surprising, but I mean, welcome to Paris I guess. What would I do differently? In my case, I 
had an errand to run in Paris, so Paris was inevitable. However, if you truly just want to 
do a four-day bike trip starting and stopping in Paris as it’s a major hub, my suggestion to 
you is once you get to Orly Airport, there is a FlixBus that will take you immediately to Orléans. 
And if you start in Orléans, it is much cheaper, it’s beautiful, and you’ll get biking right 
away. If you did not bring your bike like me, I’m sure there are a million bike shops that would 
be happy to help you, as this is probably the most famous cycling route in all of France. Although 
Orléans is not technically the beginning of the Loire Valley cycle route, it is where most 
people end up starting, as it is a major hub. Eventually, I arrived in Orléans just as the 
sun was setting on Thursday — about a full day later than originally planned. But honestly, 
it felt like the real beginning of the trip. The city is full of history. First off, it’s 
where Joan of Arc famously led the French army to lift the siege in 1429, a turning 
point in the Hundred Years’ War. Today, you still see her image everywhere — in statues, 
flags, and even café names. As I rolled into town with the last light of the day, I could finally 
see the Loire River stretching out ahead. Tomorrow, the real ride begins — through castles, 
vineyards, and small villages all along the river. Thank you for watching, and 
I’ll see you in Day Two.