My sister, Gwen, has a house near Toulouse in southern France where we visit her every summer and I was wondering if we couldn't ride our bikes there. But there are some things you are convinced you can't do and and this was one. I felt I had many good reasons:

1. Too far

2. Too many mountains - Switzerland is in our way

3. Only highways in the Rhone Valley

4. Provence is too hot in the summer months

5. Too crowded - all of France goes to the Mediterranean for vacation in August

6. We're too old

Despite this list of negative assumtions, the idea of cycling to my sister's continued to fascinate me. One by one we were able to eliminate what seemed to be obstacles.

Once I realized we've done longer trips, the distance was no longer a problem.

The leg from Munich to the Swiss border was easy to plan, we're on home territory here. I also found a brilliant site for long-distance traveling in Germany. www.radweit.de

After crossing Lake Constance by ferry, we could follow the Swiss cycling route Mittelland-Route 5 to Lake Geneva and then a short distance on the Rhone-Route 1 to the French border. All the information can be found under www.veloland.ch and Route 5 is classified 'easy cycling tour for families'. Go for it!

Ten years ago my husband walked parts of the Rhone Valley as a pilgrim on his way to Santiago de Compostela. He assured me we could bike it and I took his word for it.

As for the heat and the crowds, we decided we would deal with that when the time came. And if the highways were too heavily trafficked, we could always hop a train.

We're both in our upper sixties and if it turned out we're too old for this adventure, we'd just have to quit. But we didn't want to quit before we started.

The prospect of cycling from our front door in Munich to Gwen's front door in the little town of Durfort at the foot of the Montagne Noire was exhilarating.