One of the greatest parts of Nice on the Côte d’Azur is the Promenade des Anglais. It is a seven-kilometer “walkway” that runs along the Mediterranean Sea from the Nice Airport to just short of the Lympia Port. There is a very nice two-lane bike and scooter path that runs the whole distance and more. One easy way to experience Nice and see the sights along the Promenade is by renting a bike, and Nice has a good bike sharing program called Velo Bleu.

According to its website www.velobleu.org, Veloway and Veolia Transport were commissioned by Nice Côte d’Azur to set up and operate self-service bicycles. There are currently 175 bike stations in Nice, Cagnes sur Mer, and St. Laurent du Var. We are going to just focus on Nice.

There are many Velo Bleu stations at various spots around the city. As there was one right outside of our apartment here in Port Lympia, we decided to give it a try. But first we needed an account. We could do that either by calling the number listed at the bike station or by going to its website www.velobleu.org and register. We decided to go with the latter.

I had read many stories on the web about the problems and length of time it took to get it right the first time. If you don’t speak French well yet like me, I Googled “velo bleu” and then clicked on the “translate this page”. It came up and it had translated the whole page for me into English, and I was able to stumble my way through the registration process. It seemed a lot easier to me than trying to call on my cell and to try and use the automated service. The 4th button down on their homepage was the “I’m registering” button, I clicked it and registered.

Another nice feature of the website is the “En temps réel” function. It means “in real time.” It is a real time mapping function that can save you time and effort of finding a rentable bike. Going between the French version and the English version of the website, you can find the nearest bike station. You can also see how many bikes are available. Clicking on a bike icon tells you first the station number, the number of bikes available and then the number of slots to return a bike to that are available.

Now down to the station.

There are boards at every station in French and English that explain some of the ways to rent/return a bike and some other functions. As you can see from the picture, there are 3 slots numbered 1, 2 and 3. So basically, you make sure that there is a suitable bike chained to your blue box in one of the three slots. You power on the machine and then wait while it charges up. Soon you will get a chance to choose English as a language.

Push the button for English and then you will go to the next screen.

This screen gives you the option to pick French, English or Italian.  Push the button for English.

Hit ‘Rent a bike’ and then wait for the screen to change and give you a phone number to call to verify that it is really you.

Time to call

This next part is very important and what throws most people off. The phone number starts with +336. For me, this didn’t work as I had a “Orange Holiday” sim card which gives me a local French phone number. In the above picture, instead of dialing 336 62 45 87 96, I dialed 06 62 45 87 96. (It appears that 33 is France’s country code, so if you use a phone from, say, the U.S., that might work, but I don’t know for sure)

With what I dialed, it verified me the first time. It then runs you through a couple of easy questions on the screen and then you are asked to decide which bike number you want. This is basically the chain that you need to pull out of the box. Follow the chain to make sure it is for the bike you really want. Make sure to check the tires and other conditions of the bike. After you use the keypad to choose your number between 1-3, you have about 5 seconds to pull out the chain. Any slower than that, and you will have to start over. Don’t worry though as it will credit back any charges that aren’t warranted.

We rented 2 bikes and rode for some time and then it was time to return them. This is a very simple process. Just find a station with open slots for the bike and power on the machine. Click for English language and then click return bike. Once the machine is ready it will tell you which opening number (1-3) to put the chain back into. Slide it hard all the way in so that the machine can lock the chain in. That’s it.

Voilà, you have successfully rented your first Velo Bleu. Now time to find some ice cream to replace those burned calories.

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