The last sleep before Paris.

Bags are packed and the bike is in the bike bag - last sleep before we fly out to Paris.

Not quite sure why France seems like a second home to us. People do return to the same comfortable location for their annual holidays every year. We spent about eight years taking the kids to Lakes Entrance and how many still take off to Rosebud and the Mornington Peninsula.

Since our first visit to France in 2006, its been, for us, a comfortable place to be. Although this is the fourth visit, it still holds a sense of wonderment about it. The various regions are so different.

A quiet cafe at Arles in Provence on the Rhone river - home to Van Gogh and for a nine week period, Gauguin.

Provence with its fabulous coastline and its Luberon hilltop villages is so different to the the early history of man in the Dordogne region.

Burgundy has it's own uniqueness as does the Languedoc, both being wine growing districts of note. The Loire Valley holds a special interest to us and this will be our third visit to that region.

The Cathar village of Minerve in the Languedoc - fabulous cycling for hills.

Rich in history, it tells tales of Richard the Lionheart and Joan of Arc. The Loire presents the most impressive group of Chateaux in all of France. Many people visiting the great Chateaux of France do it on two wheels, cycling from one to another.

One of the many Chateaux of the Loire

The Dordogne held a personal fascination for me with its history of early man living in caves. We  viewed the prehistoric drawings of Mammoth, bison and other early species on the cave walls.

 The Troglodyte villages set in the soft rock cliffs throughout the region would appear on my morning rides..

The Loire in my experience is very kind to cyclists with its flat terrain. Perfect for riding a single gear bike. That's what I have taken on our past visits to France. This new bike is set-up so I can enjoy riding in the streets of Paris and then quickly convert it to a track bike to train at the Paris Velodrome.

Having said that, I promise that the blog is "Not JUST about the Bike", but the many facets of French life.