Well, I’m leaving for France in the next few hours. Flying from Nashville to Charlotte, NC. A short stop and then on to Paris. Usually we fly into Nice or Lyon, but this year we found cheap tickets to Paris and so we’re going to drive from Paris to Nice. It’s a long drive, but in the end we’ll save enough money to make it worthwhile. With three of us taking turns driving (me, Les and Connie) the drive down shouldn’t be too bad, even though we’ve just finished a very long trans-Atlantic flight.

I’ve been “training” for this trip since February, and I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in in my entire life, so I’m really excited about getting on the bike over there. We plan to spend a week in Nice (where we have a great little apartment rented). Then it’s on to Mount Ventoux, the Alpes and finally Paris.  I’ve lost over 30 pounds since February 1st, so that’s making a big difference as well, especially when I’m climbing.

Everything is packed, including my bike. My good friend Hervé is going to meet us at the airport in Paris. We’re going to unpack our bikes there on the spot and he’s going to store our bike boxes during the trip which will make getting around from city to city much, much easier and leave us a lot more room in the car we’re renting. We’ve got a Renault Kangoo reserved (the same car we always get). It’s a small van, but it gets tight in the back with two large bike boxes. Being able to store the bike boxes and just have the bikes themselves makes a huge difference.