Cycle Chic in Nantes (France)

Cycling right in the heart of the city with almost no more cars.

Nantes will host Vélo-City 2015 and Cycle Chic went there to photograph Citizen Cyclists. Read more about the cycling policy in Nantes on Copenhagenize.com: Nantes - A City Getting it Right.

Cycling on a pedestrian street allowed to the bicycle users.


Cycling on the square closed to the car traffic.


Family time on a Bicloo.


Bike to work on a Bicloo.

Bordeaux Cycle Chic

Spotted in Bordeaux. Nothing sums up the diversity of Cycle Chic than this fabulous bicycle user.

NOOC - French Rainwear for Cyclists

A good friend of ours was in Copenhagen recently. Sophie is from Bordeaux and she is a designer who owns a cool, French brand of rain clothes called NOOC. In the photo, above, by a Copenhagen canal Sophie is wearing one of her rain ponchos.

While we here at Cycle Chic are rather sceptical about all these "urban cycling clothes" we're seeing cluttering up the market, rain gear is a universal need and, often, in desperate need of an injection of style. Sophie and NOOC have succeeded in bringing some panache to the often geeky world of rain gear for cyclists and pedestrians.

Here's Sophie in NOOC's Perfecto jacket.


Here are some shots from NOOC's catalogue, taken in Bordeaux where the brand is based.

NOOC's products are a classic European mix. A French company acquires recycled material from Belgium and gets the clothes produced in Portugal. Which we find to be very cool. China often gets a bad rap. There are quality factories, not just crappy ones that exploit workers. But an all-European product is definately something that gets our attention and respect.

NOOC's website is currently only in http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifFrench, but the brand is growing faster than fast and an English version will hit the internet tout suite.

It's not all girly clothes, either. Dapper gentleman have great rainwear options in the NOOC range.

All in all, Cycle Chic is fond of NOOC. And we're looking forward to handing out some cool NOOC products to the chic'est cyclists in Barcelona on June 17th, when we'll be photographing the most fashionable cyclists in the city during the Cycle Chic Bloggers Conference, in assocation with BAAC.

1968

Classic photograph from the hand of Henri Cartier-Bresson, taking in Paris, May 1968, during the society-changing demonstrations iniated by the students.

Tour de France for Cycle Chicsters

THE YELLOW JERSEY

The Tour de France started yesterday and while it's a thrilling three weeks of sport, it's a fashion nightmare. We here at Cycle Chic thought we'd present with the favourites for the different coloured jerseys that are up for grabs. Firstly, the all-important Maillot Jaune / Yellow Jersey that the race leader gets to wear.

Here are Cycle Chic's two favourites.

THE GREEN JERSEY

Then there is the Green Jersey, worn by the rider with the most points in sprints. It's a tough call between the flock from Mr Green here in Copenhagen...

... or this Copenhagener looking all summery in her green dress.

THE POLKA DOT JERSEY

The polka dot jersey is worn by The King of the Mountains and should, technically, be red with white dots. We're flexible.

Here are our two favourites for the polka dot jersey.

THE WHITE JERSEY

The white jersey is worn by the best youth rider. Youth is a relative term, of course. We've got our eyes on these two Citizen Cyclists for the white jersey this year.


LANTERNE ROUGE

The rider who is in last place at any given time during the Tour de France is called the Lanterne Rouge - The Red Lantern. Not very thrilling in the French race, but here at Cycle Chic, where our slogan is Style Over Speed, the Red Lantern can be an honour.

Paris Cycle Chic

There are three cities in the world that I miss quite often. That I think about quite often and wish that I'd be visiting soon. Nothing to do with bicycles, just the cities.

Paris is one of them.

Taunton Cycle Chic et al

Mrs Day's Green Leather Sling-backs.

A couple of cracking photos from the Taunton Tweed Cycle Chic website, one of newish cycle chic blogs gracing the internet.

Mr Sargeant on Raleigh Roadster.

Our little Cycle Chic movement keeps on expanding. Other new sites that have registered are:
Munich Cycle Chic
Aix-en-Provence Cycle Chic
St. Andrews Cycle Chic
Bandung Cycle Chic [Indonesia]
Sheffield Cycle Chic
Tucson Bike Beautiful
Buenos Aires Cycle Chic
Torun Cycle Chic [Poland]
ADDED:
I Dream of Cycling - Atlanta, USA
Did I miss anybody?!

As ever, we're honoured and flattered to have you all in the cycle chic family.

Kids and Bicycles

My mate Marc from Amsterdamize took this cracking shot and I just had to add it here, right away. Brilliant Cycle Chic.


And this one of Marc's reminded of this one I took in Paris on my last visit:


Which made me remember La Rochelle, where I had just arrived from, and one of our summer holidays on Ile de Ré a few years back where Felix sat on the kid seat on my bike and, as a rule, slept all the way home from the beach. Six kilometres each way.


Which made me think about this year's summer holiday on the island of Bornholm:


And now I miss summer.

EDIT by Lars:
Seing this subject Mikael, I just have to throw in this one from today:

I can´t help smiling when I look at the three little girls in front just having a great time.

La Rochelle By Night

A couple of evening shots from my recent visit to La Rochelle.

A group of us were heading off to dinner.

French Bicycle Advocate Cycle Chic

Last week, as mentioned, I was in La Rochelle, France attending a national bicycle conference as a speaker.

On one of the days we all went for a bike ride around the city, ending up at city hall. These photos are a good indication of what passionate French bicycle advocates look like.

Skirts and heels.

Dapper in the evening.

Poise and casual elegance.

If it's role models we're looking for in order to promote urban cycling as a normal, accepted and respected transport form, this bunch are leading the way.

La Rochelle Cycle Chic - encore une fois

Here are a few afternoon shots from a cycling life in the French city of La Rochelle. Regular people using bicycles to get around their city. Just the way it should be.

Tres chic.

All age and wage brackets are doing it.

Shoulder checking, too. Although I suspect she is looking for someone since she is cycling in a gloriously wide bike lane.

La Rochelle Cycle Chic et al

I attended a national cycle conference in La Rochelle last week.
I made a little film about this splendidly cycle-friendly city.
Here it is.
It was already my favourite city in France after having spent many a summer holiday there. It's the home of the world's first bike-share programme dating from 1975, too. They have really worked hard over the past couple of years on making the city even more bicycle-friendly.

Ready to Roll in Paris

We had both grabbed a Velib bicycle at the same time and were both ready to move out into traffic.

Gesticulation in Paris

It may look like she is gesticulating in anger at the motorist, but the people in the car were asking directions and she didn't know. They were laughing as I passed by on Rue du Rivoli in Paris.

Snack Stop in Paris

Brilliant. Sums up cycling in Paris. Waiting patiently for pedestrians to cross while snacking on a sandwich.

Spent a few hours Velibbing around the city today. What a treat. Bicycle lanes all over the place and bicycles using them. Amazing to see. All just regular citizens in regular clothes. Both on the Velib bikes from the bike share system, but on their own bikes as well.

Racy Bicycles

This is one of the most classic vintage bicycle posters in the history of cycling. Cycles Gladiators was a French brand and this poster was created in 1895 by G. Massias. It barely raised an eyebrow back then as scores of bicycle posters featured liberated women in the early days of Bicycle Culture 1.0, as you can see on this poster we've created.

The poster has been adopted by a California winemaker and is used on the label. The elegant woman has finally raised eyebrows in Alabama, USA. The state has just banned the wine from the state because the label is 'pornographic'. Read more over at Copenhagenize.com.

It's all so very silly.

Revisiting Paris Cycle Chic

This time last year Wifealiciousness and I were in Paris and we used the brilliant Vélib bike share programme to get around the entire time. Here's a little 'Paris Cycle Chic Revisited' post. To read more about Paris Cycle Chic, read the original reportage here.


Paris' blossoming bicycle culture certainly gives Copenhagen a run for her money.


I made this little film about our trip to the city. Music is 'Bello Ciao' by my friend Jason McNiff.


Cycling in style.

And cycling sociably.

See more photos in the set on Flickr.