Motorcycle rides around Paris and the Île-de-France

The real obstacle is the first half hour

The problem with riding around Paris is not a shortage of roads, it is getting clear of the built-up area. Depending on where you start, that can mean forty minutes of dense traffic, lights and bus lanes, and it is what puts most Paris-based riders off. Do not count on filtering to fix it either: the rules on riding between lanes in France have changed several times in recent years, so check the current status rather than assume.

The fix is to choose your exit by where you start, not by which area looks best on a map. From south-west Paris, the Chevreuse valley is thirty minutes out. From the north-west, the Vexin. From the south, Fontainebleau and the Gâtinais. From the north-east, the Multien. Each of them gives you real riding inside an hour.

Enforcement is part of the equation

Île-de-France is the most heavily policed region in the country, and the areas riders like get particular attention. Fontainebleau forest, the Chevreuse valley and the approaches to the forest massifs are watched regularly, especially at weekends. Fixed and mobile speed cameras are dense, and the limits on two-lane roads change from one department to the next.

There are local restrictions on top of that. A number of forest roads are closed to motor traffic, several communes have passed noise orders aimed at motorcycles, and the low-emission zone around Paris keeps tightening. It costs nothing to check the current restrictions before plotting a route, and it saves an argument at a barrier.

Treat the region as a starting point

Île-de-France works well for a half day and wears thin if you ride the same loops every weekend. The better habit is to use it as a launch pad: two hours out you are in the Perche, in Normandy, in the Eure valley, in the Puisaye or heading for the Ardennes.

A full 300 km day west or south feels like a different country compared with the local 120 km loop, and it only costs an extra hour of transit at the start. For a visitor with one spare day, that is almost always the better call.

Landing at CDG or Orly, and riding in France

Both airports sit inside the traffic, so plan your first hour rather than improvise it. From Charles de Gaulle, the quickest usable riding is north-east into the Ourcq valley and the Multien, or east into the Brie. From Orly, go south towards Fontainebleau, the Loing valley and the Gâtinais. If Paris is only your entry point and the real trip is elsewhere, an early start on a Saturday or Sunday morning gets you out of the ring in half the usual time.

Riding in France is straightforward once you know the local habits, and none of it is difficult. The points below are the ones visitors trip over most often.

• Ride on the right. At unmarked junctions in villages and on country lanes, priorité à droite still applies: traffic joining from your right has priority, and locals use it.
• Speed limits: 130 km/h on motorways (110 in the wet), 110 on dual carriageways, 80 or 90 on two-lane rural roads depending on the department, 50 in built-up areas.
• Motorways beyond the free ring roads are tolled. Motorcycles pay a reduced class, but barriers are fiddly on a bike, so keep a card somewhere you can reach one-handed.
• Greater Paris runs a low-emission zone. A Crit'Air sticker is required, it applies to foreign-registered vehicles, and it has to be ordered online before you travel.
• CE-approved gloves are compulsory for rider and pillion, and you must carry a reflective vest. Check that your insurance covers France and carry the paperwork.
• Fuel is easy near the city, but rural stations further out often close on Sundays, and unattended pumps reject some non-European cards. Fill up on Saturday if your route goes deep into the Gâtinais or the Vexin.

Planning the ride with Waver

Waver is a French route planner and riding app, free and in open beta. The web planner is the part that matters here: you place your waypoints, ask for the winding option rather than the fastest, avoid motorways and tolls, then import or export GPX so the route works with whatever you already use. A saved route gets its elevation profile on its own page. Routes can be filed into folders, which helps when you are building a trip months ahead from another country.

On the phone, guided navigation with voice instructions is available on Android through the Play Store; on an iPhone, the planner and your saved routes work in the browser. It records the ride and gives you distance, time and speed stats afterwards, it can share your live position with someone at home, and it handles group rides with a chat plus multi-day roadtrips. Being straight about the gaps: there is no offline map yet, no weather along the route, and no crash detection. Waver is not a safety device, so plan your route with it and keep your own margins on the road.