- The city of Paris hosted the Dictée du Tour de France for the first time this morning. The Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, the Director of the Tour de France, Christian Prudhomme, and the Rector of the Île-de-France academic region, Julie Benetti, were on hand to mark the occasion.
- Over 1,200 Parisian pupils sharpened their pencils for the dictation contest in their classrooms or —for 131 among them— at City Hall and got to grips with a text about the unprecedented visit of the Tour to Montmartre.
- Next came a bicycle ride along the banks of the Seine, reflecting the shared commitment of the City of Paris and the Tour de France to encouraging children to take up cycling.
THE DICTÉE DU TOUR ROLLS INTO PARIS
The Dictée du Tour rolled into Paris for the first time ever. Following a series of dictation contests held across France on 28 March, classrooms in Paris were filled with the sound of pencil cases snapping open and the words of a text from the regional press being read aloud.
The Mayor of Paris and the Director of the Tour de France welcomed 131 children aged 9 to 12 to Paris City Hall for the dictation contest. More than 1,200 pupils in 51 schools across Paris took part in it at the same time.
A RECORD-BREAKING EDITION
170,000 schoolchildren from schools on the route of the Grande Boucle have tackled the Dictée du Tour in the eight editions organised since its inception in 2017. This year has been a bumper harvest, with a record-breaking 35,000 participants.
The text used for the Parisian contest was an extract from an article by the journalist Émilie Defay. Writing in Ici Paris (formerly France Bleu), she describes the experience awaiting the riders on 27 July, the final stage of the Tour, when the peloton will climb Montmartre for the first time ever.
"BRAIN AND BRAWN"
After dotting the Is and crossing the Ts in the dictation contest, the children jumped on the saddle for a ride on the banks of the Seine. The ride brought the motto "brain and brawn" to life and encapsulated the spirit of a morning that put both their neurons and their legs muscles to the test. The ultimate goal, to encourage children to take up cycling from an early age, is shared by the City of Paris and the Tour de France, whose Riding into the Future programme has introduced more than half a million children to cycling as a means of transportation since 2018.
The young cyclists were joined by Rayan Boulahoite, an up-and-coming pro rider from Île-de-France competing for the cycling team TotalEnergies, as well as the Paris Cyclisme Olympique and Paris Université Club outfits, who lent the children their bicycles.
Last but not least, the initiative was also a celebration of the recent award of the "Tour de France Cycle City" label to Paris with the highest possible score —four bicycles— and a recognition of its sustained investment in cycling. One of the symbols of this ambition, the redevelopment of the banks of the Seine, has returned these spaces to pedestrians and cyclists, underscoring the local authority's commitment to cycling as part of everyday life.
