Fancy Guiding in France?

If you like the idea of working as a guide in the French Alps, we’ve got some news from Bikevillage’s Sam Morris which might pique your interest… take away, Sam:

Love the idea of working as a bike guide in the French Alps? Hate the idea of picking up soap in a French prison? Your country (sort of) needs you!

This is an opportunity to be part of the first wave of fully legal British guides working in France. The days of ‘grey-guiding’ (with the authorities looking the other way) are coming to an end – and pretty much everyone stands to benefit from the change, most of all British riders on their holidays. Good tidings indeed [nicely shoehorned in Christmas sentiment there – Ed]

The catchily acronymmed DDCSPP (hereafter known as Team France) are actively trying to recruit hopeful guides from the equally lettered-up MBLA, MIAS, CTC etc (so, basically, Team Britain) to take part in the first full version of the 2-day equivalence exam that was piloted last June. It will take place in France sometime between May 30th and June 3rd 2016 and they’re hoping to get at least a dozen applicants through to the exam.

The assessment will consist of one day testing your emergency response and skills coaching capabilities and a second day testing your personal riding and navigational skills.

Successful applicants will need:

• A recognised UK qualification (see the acronym-fest above).
• Professional experience covering a period of 2 years, acquired within the EU but outside France.
• A reasonable level of spoken French – the exams are in French, naturellement.
• Translations of quite a few forms, including your training details, criminal record check and a medical certificate.
• Applications need to be completed before February 29th 2016. With the amount of documentation required this means starting right now and aiming to hand initial applications in before the end of January 2016. This process can now be followed online with the DDCSPP (essentially the French Ministry of Sport).

What next? The first step is to contact the DDCSPP in Haute-Savoie by email to request the forms, or you can print them off below.

If you are MBLA qualified, Sam at Bikevillage has made all of his course translations available, which will save you a pretty penny and much time. Drop him an email at sam@bikevillage.co.uk.

And here are those forms:

Formulaire-2015_Declaration_LE

focus moniteur guide VTT

Barney Marsh

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.

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