If you want a holiday that will be relaxing, healthy, great fun and will take you somewhere new then try one of the great cycling holidays France has to offer.
Read on and I will give you some good reasons for making this choice.
You might have a picture of someone toiling their way up a steep hill, their bike loaded down with a week's luggage, with eyes only for the next car that might run you down any minute. It is that image that puts people off the idea of a cycling holiday, but it really needs not be like that.
Cycling in France is a way of life. It is not for nothing that the world's greatest cycling event takes place in France. French people love cycling and not just as a sport, but as the leisure activity par excellence.
There is a network of brilliant cycle ways that are called the 'voies vertes', which means 'green ways', and they are what make French cycling holidays so good.
They are a system of safe and beautiful routes through the French countryside specifically for any one not using a motor. You will see walkers, horse riders, cyclists, roller bladders, the old and the young, but you will not see a car. Is not that fantastic?
You can cycle for miles on these special routines that are usually established on places like canal tow paths or where a disused railway track has been paved smooth. They will often take you along well-established footpaths and old pilgrimage route.
In order to be used by as many people as possible the gradients are not too steep, they are wide enough for everyone to pass by safely, and access to them is really easy from the towns and cities. They are fantastic for the experienced or for those of you who are new to cycling in France.
There is even a newly established set of 'blue ways' that are quiet, urban cycle ways that link into the green ways network to make your cycling experience as safe and enjoyable as possible.
By using these routes you will be helping local people, and giving something to the local economy. Along the way the old railway stations have often been turned into tourist information offices or hostels and so provide jobs in rural areas.
So, as I said, you will have a relaxing, healthy, and safe holiday without having to worry about speeding motorists. But what about toiling along loaded down with luggage? Well that need not be the case either.
If you book an organized holiday, the last of your problems disappears. There are specialist companies that organize wonderful cycling holidays in France that leave you with nothing to do, but ride along and enjoy the view.
Their view is that in France cycling holidays should be as much a holiday as possible, so they take care of everything that could make it difficult. They plan the route and provide you with maps and guides of what you can see along the way. They pick up your luggage and take it to your next stop. They book all your overnight stops in locally run guesthouses and they rent you a decent bike, too.
What if you do not speak a word of French and find the prospect of being out in the country with no interpreter a bit counseling. Well, for you there are attended tours, so if you do need anything there will be a guide who knows the country and speaks the language. You will also have fellow group members to share the experience with over a glass of wine in the evening.
Overseas adventure travel does not mean danger or risk taking it also means new and wonderful experiences in another country. It means coming home enriched by the encounter with a new culture and way of life. All this and more is what you get when you decide to go cycling in France.