Who knows France?

Cheap, some cool people, good polo scene, right on the foot of the black forest and Rhine for awesome riding/mtbing/hiking, not too far from good places to go snowboarding/skiing, good connections to other parts of Europe by train...

Sorry, it was in jest and was not intended to provoke an earnest reply.

ha! I know. But felt like I should point out how awesome it could be. being so clsoe to the black forest alone would be awesome. when we were there last, you were pretty much in the middle of no where in 5 minutes ride. so nice!

Annecy is lovely and in the same area.

Particularly nice and not too far from the UK is the Loire region, great rides, lovely places to stop...chateau, lovely towns, museums of all kinds, good food and wine and the river of course. And notwithstanding the weather which always improves when you are south of the Loire.
I am a little biased as I know the area well, my Dad did a bicycle tour there in the 1950s on his fillet brazed Hobbs of Barbican which I now have.
If you go in July 2011 the Tor de France visits Le Mans, Redon, and Lorient.

^Raciste.

So I got approval from my supervisor to do this. Assuming costs work out, I'm gonna aim for early next year. Lolo, let's talk ASAP - maybe this weekend sometime?

Alpe Dhuez is tres close to Grenoble.

Annecy is lovely and in the same area.

Annecy is probably the most bike-friendly place i've been to. Theres a 21 mile cycle path round the lake which also leads onto the Col de Madelene. Amazing scenery and friendly people, shame we only stayed for a day.

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Speaking of bike-friendly places in France, I was amazed and delighted a few weeks ago to find a dedicated bike assembly area, complete with a workstand and a few tools (all free to use), in the baggage reclaim hall at Nice Airport. Massive thumbs-up. Has anyone seen anything similar at other airports, in France or elsewhere?

That's pretty awesome! Never experienced that, no. Although my airport and bike experiences are limited to Toronto, Montreal, and Heathrow. When we arrived in Heathrow in 2003 for a tour, we were in fact told by a copper it was illegal for us to cycle away from the airport because we'd need to take roads which bikes were banned from. He was very nice about it, and pretty much forced a bus driver to let us on (for free) until we got past these bike-free zones.

Hi all, I'm thinking about attempting the Tourmalet with a friend in August this year. No set time limit to complete but I wanted to get any opinions on those who had done it before.

Mainly; how much gear did you take, how long did you do it in? I would say I'm reasonably fit (20 mile commute 5 days a week) but have a limited knowledge on the tour and the routes. Advice would be much appreciated.