La Roche-sur-Yon, located some twenty-five miles east of the Bay of Biscay in the Pays de la Loire region of western France, may seem like an odd place to start a BikeWalk Provo story, but here in Provo we have residing a family whose home was only a year and a half ago in this very same French city. And I thought it might be interesting to see what the Massé family thought about Provo’s active transportation infrastructure.
Maybe you’d even like to meet them or already have, as I first did while volunteering at BikeWalk Provo’s Farmers Market Valet Parking project over the summer.
In 2021, Philippe Massé and his wife Amelie came up with the idea of “spending a couple of years living abroad,” in the U.S. They soon found a French Government program, “Jules Verne,” that would accommodate their family of four (they also have two small children) and moved their household across the Atlantic to Provo, Utah on 22 August of 2022. The couple found work at Edgemont Elementary School where Philippe, after first working for a year with another employer, and Amelie are today employed to teach French language.
Philippe and Amelie take turns transporting the two children to school, just as they had been doing in France. Back then, accompanied by their parents, “the kids rode their own bikes to school,” with the youngest child beginning to ride at the age of four. “Everyone rode bikes, but it [everything] was closer and safer” in La Roche-sur-Yon. Here in Provo, Philippe and Amelie have decided to transport the children with a cargo bike, piloted by one of the parents, a bike that they often share in making trips to school and other activities in town.
The terrain of La Roche-sur-Yon is relatively flat and at a low elevation, so the family is finding Provo’s hills and higher elevation a bit of a challenge; Philippe and Amelie have purchased a Radiant Electric Cargo Bike with a battery range of 30 miles and enough assist to climb from their home in the Joaquin Neighborhood to Edgemont Elementary School (a steady 3.9 mile climb of 253 ft). Their normal route is north on 600 E from Center Street, a right on 700 N to 900 E, and finally north on Timpview Drive to where the school is located.
In La Roche-sur-Yon there are “bike lanes or paths [multi-use] on each side of the streets,” Philippe emphasizes, making things easier for getting around town. The downtown district has a speed limit of “20 miles per hour… and no lanes for bikes because everyone shares the road.” The streets are much narrower there, so pedestrians, bikes, and cars are sharing a much smaller space. To help with keeping those who are using bicycles safely moving in La Roche-sur-Yon and its urban areas, Philippe tells me that the website “Centre-Vélo ( www.centrevelo.com )” promotes safe cycling and offers a full range of services to cyclists.
Philippe does some active transportation advocating of his own, as a member of Carnavélo ( carnavelo.wordpress.com ), promoting family bike rides and activities. One such ride in August of 2019, La Pédal’eau à Saint Flo by ARMAGUIDON, ended at a public swimming pool with games, snacks, and something called “Aquabike,” illustrated on the flier as a fish riding a bicycle underwater. Now here in Provo, the Massé family has been doing their family rides with the Provo Bicycle Collective and plans to begin following BikeWalk Provo’s activities.
“I was pleasantly surprised to see families in Provo riding more cargo bikes than in La Roche-sur-Yon,” Philippe wanted to mention. And in asking him about the Valet Parking at the Farmers Market, “Great idea! I would like to bring that idea back to La Roche.”
On days that are too inclement, they “will carpool with other teachers at school.” Other than that and some long distance trips, Philippe and Amelie try to use active transport 100% of the time. It’s a bit more difficult here in Provo than it is for them in La Roche-sur-Yon, but they really are succeeding with some help from their cargo eBike.
As we parted, Philippe picked up a stack of children’s books, piled in a hard-plastic, detachable basket that he carries on the front rack of his bike. He had brought the books in with him to return to the Provo Library at Academy Square, where we met before he headed home. It was very apparent to me that the Massé family had already become one of those cargo biking families that Philippe was so surprised to see here in Provo, Utah.
