Theme Ride Thursday: Allez! All the French Tunes You Need for Bastille Day and Your Tour de France Profiles

Bastille Day is July 14, the national holiday (la Fête Nationale) of France, one of the most important days in French history. July is also synonymous with the Tour de France, making it the perfect month to celebrate all things French in your cycling classes.

But beyond those events, à mon avis, there is always une bonne raison to play French music in your cycling classes all year round.

I’ve been using French music in my Tour de France stages since the mid-1990s. In fact, I believe I was one of the first master instructors to introduce certain French songs to the Spinning® community in my Tour de France sessions at WSSC, beginning in 2003 through 2010. These included songs that have since become popular in cycling classes, such as “Tu Es Foutu” by In-Grid, “Désenchantée” by Kate Ryan (and another version by Mylène Farmer), “Alors On Danse” by Stromae, and songs by Les Négresses Vertes.

While I love discovering new French artists, I often find myself returning to many of the French tracks I used early in my Spinning career. I found some that truly inspired riders to turn those pedals up imaginary French Alpine passes, complete with attacks, breakaways, and long, emotional grinds up the steep French cols. I also love to play classics such as Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en Rose” or Charles Trenet’s “Douce France” as we stretch—they lend a certain je ne sais quoi to the workout. You’ll find many of these tracks in the ICA Tour de France profiles.

Over the years, I’ve curated one of the most comprehensive collections of classic and modern French songs for your Tour de France and Bastille Day celebrations—or any class that warrants great foreign music. At the bottom of this post, ICA members can access my Spotify bucket playlist with more than 650 French songs spanning pop, rock, hip-hop, electronic, dance, alternative, and everything in between.

A second bucket playlist contains 65 classic French songs that are perfect for pre-class music, cool-downs, recoveries, stretching, or simply setting the mood before riders clip in.

NEW!! Making It Easier to Find La Chanson Française Parfaite! 

While my primary French bucket playlist contains more than 650 songs, I realized that finding the perfect track for a specific purpose could still take time. Over the years, I’ve gradually been separating songs into smaller buckets based on how I use them in my profiles.

Looking for a steady endurance song for rolling terrain? A grinding climb? A high-energy attack? A cool-down that ends your French ride on the perfect note? These specialized playlists make it much easier to find exactly what you need.

1. WARM-UP & ENDURANCE (90 songs)

Songs with a tempo and energy that work beautifully for warm-ups, aerobic endurance riding, and steady flat-road terrain. Most fit comfortably into cadences of 80–100 rpm and provide enough energy to keep riders engaged without overwhelming the effort.

2. CLIMBING SONGS (144 songs)

My go-to collection for long Alpine ascents, seated strength efforts, dramatic mountain stages, and those relentless French climbs that seem to go on forever.

3. FAST HARD ATTACKS (82 songs)

High-energy songs for sprinting, breakaways, attacks, and high-cadence efforts. These are the tracks that make riders want to surge.

4. COOL-DOWN (52 songs)

The perfect soundtrack for bringing riders back down after an epic French adventure.

Now, when I create a Tour de France profile, I look first in these smaller buckets for a specific energy or terrain. To be sure, not all of the 650 songs in my primary French bucket have been categorized yet, so these playlists remain a work in progress. But they already make profile creation much easier.

Also new this year is another smaller bucket playlist I’ve been curating for several years. It’s where I place songs that aren’t French artists but include a French lyric, phrase, theme, or reference. It’s a fun way to add a little French flavor without going full Gaulois!

I’ve also included songs about Paris, making this playlist especially useful for Bastille Day rides or for celebrating the final stage of the Tour de France on the Champs-Élysées. Examples include “Paris” by Taylor Swift and “Paris Collides” by RÜFÜS DU SOL. This playlist currently contains about 65 songs and continues to grow every year.

It’s time I share these fun playlists with those of you who are just as fanatical about French music as I am! In addition to my two primary French bucket playlists, ICA members can now follow these specialized collections as well. Keep checking back—I add new songs every year.

Bastille Day

Let’s talk about this iconic French celebration.

As a longtime Francophile and Tour de France fanatic—and someone who speaks French and knows France well—I’ve always enjoyed celebrating Bastille Day in my classes. If you’re fortunate enough to teach on July 14 itself, a Tour de France stage ride is the obvious choice. But even if race commentary isn’t your thing, there are countless ways to bring a little French flair into your cycling studio.

A Bastille Day ride can be as simple as building a profile around French music, decorating the room with French flags, and sharing a few fun facts about France and Le Quatorze Juillet. If your facility allows it, offer post-ride croissants or pain au chocolat. Riders love little touches like that.

If you’re teaching during the Tour de France, consider celebrating throughout the entire three-week race. Decorate the studio in yellow, green, white, and polka dots. Create friendly competitions inspired by the Tour jerseys. Highlight famous climbs such as Alpe d’Huez, Col du Tourmalet, Mont Ventoux, or Col du Galibier. Or simply dedicate one ride each week to a different region of France, pairing the terrain and music to match.

Here are a few French facts to get the conversation started:

• France is the most visited country in the world.
• France spans 12 time zones when its overseas territories are included—more than any other country.
• There are more than 1,000 kinds of cheese (over 400 officially recognized ones) in France, and many French people would insist the real number is much higher.
• The croissant wasn’t actually invented in France. Its origins trace back to Austria before French bakers made it their own.
• The Tour de France began in 1903 as a way to help sell newspapers and has grown into the world’s most famous cycling race.
• The French national motto is Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity).

The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, may have become the defining symbol of the French Revolution, but the holiday itself actually commemorates the Fête de la Fédération held one year later in 1790, a celebration of national unity and reconciliation.

And while many people associate Marie Antoinette with the phrase “Let them eat cake,” historians generally agree there is no evidence she ever said it. Read more about her alleged quip here. 

Whether you celebrate with a full Tour de France stage ride, a room full of French flags, a few minutes of trivia, or simply a playlist packed with French music, Bastille Day is a wonderful excuse to bring a little joie de vivre into your cycling classes.

650 Songs??!! Tips for Using a Large Spotify Bucket Playlist

When you have a bucket playlist as large as this French collection, it can be overwhelming to select songs directly from it when creating a profile. The four new specialized playlists certainly help when you’re looking for a specific type of song, but there are still plenty of hidden gems among those 650 tracks that haven’t yet found their way into a smaller bucket. So if the size of this collection feels a bit daunting, here are a few tips for managing a large bucket playlist and narrowing it down to the songs that best fit your ride.

What I recommend is creating an intermediary playlist, which I call a “dump file” or “sample playlist,” where you narrow down the songs that interest you most. As I peruse the larger collection, I drag songs that fit the type of profile I’m planning, making sure to include a variety of tempos, energy levels, and emotions.

If you’re assembling a Tour de France stage, you’ll need songs for warm-ups, cool-downs, and recoveries, along with challenging climbs, fast flats, attacks and breakaways, and sprint finishes. This dump file should contain enough songs to give you options without becoming overwhelming. Thirty to forty songs is usually a good number.

Then, when it’s time to create your actual profile playlist, work from your dump file to select the final tracks. If you need more choices, simply return to the larger bucket playlist. Sorting by duration can also help you find songs of a specific length.

You can also use Sort Your Music, a third-party tool that sorts Spotify playlists and displays the bpm of every song.

If you don’t use Spotify to teach your classes, you can still follow these bucket playlists with a free Spotify account. From there, create a smaller dump file, narrow down your selections, and then search for those songs in your preferred music platform. This can save you hours and hours of music hunting.

If you have a favorite French song that I haven’t included in my bucket playlists, please share it below in the comments. I continue to add new songs every year, so every suggestion is welcome.

Allez! Allez!