Geek Chic – The Segway Tour

In Paris, tours are a dime a dozen.  Each offers its own twist on history, culture or theme, but few can actually deliver a product that’s radically different from that of its competitors.  Enter the City Segway Tour, the newest and coolest way to experience the City of Light.  Instead of taking the standard double-decker bus sightseeing route, book a tour through Fat Tire Bike Tours, climb aboard a Segway Human Transporter and whiz past tourists on foot for a view of the city you’ll never forget.

Segway Human Transporter.  From its name, the device sounds like it came directly from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel; however, the Segway is actually easy to understand and even easier to operate.  Put simply, the Segway is an intelligent scooter designed to give visitors all the benefits of seeing Paris by foot, but none of the work.  A weight-sensitive platform sits on battery-operated motorized wheels with a set of handlebars slapped on.  Users stand on the platform and let their feet control whether they go forwards or backwards (shift weight to the toes for forward, heels for backwards, or simply stand with your weight centered to stop) and twist the left handle bar to turn right or left.  “These things are WILD!” our tour guide, Marcus, says as he sticks out one leg and does several swan twirls in place, demonstrating the machines’ zero turning radius.  On the tour, visitors begin with the black key, allowing speeds of up to six miles per hour, then graduate to the yellow key of up to nine miles per hour.  The maximum speed these Segways can hit is 12 mph, but for safety and insurance reasons, visitors only get to imagine what flying down a narrow Parisian sidewalk at this speed would be like. 

A Segway tour lasts between four and five hours and runs rain or shine.  Riders meet on foot at the south pillar of the Eiffel Tower and then proceed immediately to the Fat Tire Bike Tours office to sign an insurance waver and hand over a 400-euro security deposit (either in the form of cash or a major credit card), which is pennies compared to the $6,000 price tag that accompanies a brand new machine.  From there, riders pick up their machines and begin 20 to 30 minutes of training that covers the basics of handling the machine, Segway etiquette, how to adjust to different terrain, and how to avoid accidents.  After mastering the Segway, riders practice their skills during a three-hour tour of Paris’ major monuments, including the Louvre, Les Invalides, Place de la Concorde, Musée d’Orsay, the Alexander III Bridge, and the Eiffel Tower, with a quick stop for lunch at the Tuileries Gardens.. 

City Segway Tours are intimate and personalized.  Upon arrival, the manager comes out to greet guests and offer a free bathroom to use before a Segway excursion.  Groups are limited to eight riders and one guide in order to allow plenty of time for questions or photos.  The tour itself adds fascinating stories about Paris’ rich history in addition to the basic facts about each place.  Visitors don’t just see the Eiffel Tower; they learned about why it was created, Hitler’s plan to blow it up, how many people have jumped off of it, the number of times “the French Spiderman” has climbed it, and its status as the world’s most recognized symbol.  At Place de la Concorde, visitors who opt for the “really gruesome” version of Louis XV’s death get all the gory details of the French Revolution as well as facts about the square’s history and installation of the 3,300-year-old Egyptian Obelisk at its center.  Guides are animated, friendly, knowledgeable, and above all, patient.  Despite the fact that they work with the machines every day, they’re just as excited to be riding one as you are.  “I totally want one,” Marcus confesses.  “I mean, what’s not to love.”  

Love is indeed the only way to describe the Segway.  Beyond language and cultural barriers, the machine has universal appeal.  Despite the warning from our guide (“If cars beep at you, it’s just their way of saying ‘Welcome to Paris.’  If someone gives you the middle finger, that’s their way of telling you that Fat Tire Bike Tours is number one!”), Parisians and tourists alike were excited to see the device in action.  Children race alongside it, adults marvel at its design, and tourists of all nationalities want more photos of the Segway than of the Louvre.  During our tour, cars pulled over to give us the thumbs up, pedestrians tried to high-five us as we passed, and both locals and foreigners approached our guide to ask for more information.  “When we first started [the tours], people kept saying ‘Martian’ because we looked like Martians riding around town,” says Kelly Mebane, vice president of Fat Tire Bike Tours.  “In general, it makes people smile, which is a nice thing to see.”  But Segways are more than just a novel way to get around.  For tourists with physical disabilities, they provide a viable way to see Paris without physical strain.  Kelly states, “It’s an amazing technology and it can help a lot of people.”

As the first to introduce this type of tour to the world, Fat Tire Bike Tours have become an international guinea pig for the future of the Segway.  The idea for a Segway tour began when David Mebane, president of Fat Tire, was asked to lead a group of journalists around Paris in order to determine the machines’ practicality.  Mebane immediately fell in love with the product, and in 2002 the first Segway tours were added to the company’s repertoire of bike and walking tours.  “Since our [bike] tours were already in place, it was an easy thing to add,” Kelly says.  “Paris is such a great city for the Segway.  There are huge bike lanes, big parks, it’s flat…We try to add a new product each year and this fit perfectly.”  City Segway currently operates tours in Chicago, Washington D.C., and New Orleans and, coming up, San Diego and San Francisco.  For corporations, families, parties, or groups, private tours incorporating your specific needs offer an even more personalized sightseeing venture. 


By the end of our tour, our group raced each other across Parisian bridges, created obstacle courses by weaving around trees, and giggled at how much cooler we looked riding our chariots of technology than the legions of Neanderthal tourists on foot.  Ha, on foot, how very last century.  “I love my job,” Marcus told us.  “I get to see the most beautiful city in the world every day and I ride around on these all the time.”  He does another swan twirl directly under the Eiffel Tower as Japanese tourists take our picture, and all I could say was, “You guys hiring?”

City Segway Tours

24, rue Edgar Faure

75015 Paris, France

Phone: 01 56 58 10 54

[email protected]

Metro: Dupliex