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Roller (inline skating) in Paris:  History & One Man's Experience

by David George (no relation to webmistress)

David shares with us the history on how he understands a transportation crisis contributed to inline skating's (called "Roller" in France) popularity. He also shares his experience skating to work,, around Paris and participating in the Paris Friday Night Skate.

Relocating from the U.K.

In the summer of 2000, I lived in Bournemouth, England.  I moved to Paris, partly because inline skating has such a good reputation with lots of organised events.  Well in fact it is six of one, half a dozen of the other here. 

I arrive in September, still summer.  Got a hotel half an hour's walk from where I was going to work, which soon turned out to be a drag and really hot.  So I started going into work by skates.  I work for Europe's largest insurer, normally a bit uptight, but we have a pretty relaxed little office away from the main building. 

Traffic

The trip to work certainly got me used to Paris.  Incredible traffic:  cars go very fast and don't necessarily respect traffic lights.  That said, they are very used to people on rollers and normally take evasive action.  However they park anywhere, making it to impossible to get from one side of the road to the other.  More experienced skaters avoid problem by using the road and getting tows of cars, buses and dumper trucks.

Non-Traffic Hazards

The next hazard are the little dogs and the mess they leave everywhere.  The Paris town hall has a special team of 'little green men' - the so called moto-crots.  These guys whiz around the streets on special scooters with huge vacuum cleaners sucking all the little steaming piles of doggie do.  They collect 20 tons a day, which is, according to popular myth, dumped in the river Seine.  Eugh! 

But most frightening of all are the cobbles. Cobbles, cobbles everywhere. They may look pretty but after a hundred yards you feel like you've been operating a pneumatic drill.

Rando Sauvage

I made contact with a little group that heads out on what is called 'un rando sauvage'. A wild skate, they really are the wild bunch too.  Left, right, along little roads you would never know existed.  My knowledge of Paris is now top notch.  In an evening we may pass the Louvre, the Opera House, the Bastille, the Eiffel Tower, finishing off with a slalom down the Champs Elysees.  Despite the wild antics it is much safer going out in a group, the speed makes the cobbles bearable and the critical mass gets you noticed by drivers who are generally very tolerant.

Paris Friday Night Skate

Paris is the home of the largest known organised skate, and possibly the greatest show on earth.  In the summer close to 30,000 skaters join this 25 to 30 km tour of Paris.  The only requirement is that you can brake.  They even organise courses early in the evening to get you up to standard.  

The Friday night skates go ahead and are only cancelled when it is raining. An escort of around two dozen police, some on skates, accompany the route.  There are also around 50 officials of the body that organises the skate, they wear yellow t-shirts, carry first aid and assist the police with traffic control.  Despite the numbers and hazards of Paris roads accidents are fairly rare and it is a great way to visit the city.

Tonight we set off from Place d'Italie (as usual at 10pm).  We headed down to Montparnasse and then turned towards St German du Pres. This is the haunt of French poseurs and intellectuals and was where Hemmingway used to hang out.  We then passed les Invalides, the French military museum before taking a break at Montparnasse again, in front of the railway station. You can't miss Montparnasse as there is a 30 story tower block.  One of the tallest buildings in Paris. We then headed towards the Seine, crossing over to the Royal Palace, a quick tour up the canal to the Bastille before the long drag back to the start. It was a very fast evening and we finished at around 12.30am.

The Birth of the Paris Friday Night Skate - A Transportation Crisis

The event came about in the mid nineties. France is prone to wildcat strikes. In 1995 the public transport had a show down with the government who were trying to implement 'anglo-saxon' policies.  Anglo-saxon refers to the perceived Anglo-American conspiracy to ruin France's Dolce Vita by imposing low pay, flexible working practises and a McDonalds on every street corner.  Anyway their was no transport, the streets were grid locked but people still had to get to work.  Suddenly a solution was found, inline skates. The sports stores of Paris were emptied.

After the three week strike people had become accustomed to using their skates. But the police and local council were not so keen on unrestricted skating.  However the French have a right to organise demonstrations. So some clever Parisians informed the city hall that they would be demonstrating every Friday night, starting from the Place d'Italie in the 13ths district and ahem 'marching' a 25km route all over Paris.  What are you demonstrating about? "Oh, er, rights for inline skaters."

So city hall had to provide a police escort, close roads and generally make sure that no-one came to any harm.  Of course the bean counters at city-hall were not happy.  This is costing us money, we have to pay police overtime.  Now they couldn't stop the skaters, demonstrations are a legal right and anyone in authority who has ever dared stand-up against the Paris mob has come to a sticky end, as Madam Guillotine will witness. However they could curtail them.  Last summer they proposed that the skates stick to a fixed route and, it must be said, pretty mundane.  City hall told the police of their plans.  The skaters put forward their route, the skate went ahead as normal.

City hall was incensed, the chief of police was called in to explain. We thought it would be a public safety issue to impose your route, the chief explained. City hall said that if orders were not followed the following Friday the chief would be directing traffic Monday morning.  Friday came, the skaters told the police of their route, the police objected and said there was no way they could allow this.  Plan B went into operation. The skate was cancelled. This let a tidal wave of close to 30,000 uncontrolled skaters loose on the streets of Paris.  The city was gridlocked for hours.  City halls phones began to ring, city halls fax machines began to buzz, city halls email box began to fill up.  Important people had been trapped in traffic chaos for hours. Now it was city hall's turn to explain.  Ok, let me get this straight, to save a few bucks you thought it was a good idea to inconvenience 3 million voters on a Friday night?  Mr Prefet, have you even considered what it is like to operate a garbage truck, no?  Well don't worry, you will be finding out very soon.

So things went back to normal. 

A special thanks goes to David for contributing this article on his experiences.

Links:

Rollers & Coquillages (The Group that Organizes Friday Nite Skate) 
A French-language site-they sponsor events, a Friday night skate in Paris with up to 5,000 skaters (no typo here!) and info. on places to skate in Paris and other locations in France.

Whether you skate on paths, trails, back roads or city streets, please remember to do so safely, always wear protective gear, be courteous and Be Seen.