This is a tour that we really thought would never happen. It is nothing short of a miracle that we will be leaving for Paris in 12days time. Why? This year has been a year of reduced mobility and it is the thought of this tour that has kept me motivated see www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Knee - you will see this journal is really just a euphoric continuation of the article.

After we arrive in Paris we will set off on an anticlockwise trip around France - down to the Med then up the Rhone, join the EV6 then the Rhine and the Moselle before we hit the Rhine, the Main and eventually arrive in Frankfurt to fly home

It looks a fantastic trip but what happens is still very much up in the air, we will take it easily particularly at first. On the 27th we fly to Brisbane to spend the weekend with our daughter and her family - the highlight of this will be a Grandparents afternoon at the boy's school (living in a different country we can't usually take advantage of such things). On Sunday we fly to Paris and have reserved a hotel near the Bastille which is near a place we want to visit. And then we will hit the road.

The trip is on - we are off to Paris and there is certainly a mass of stuff to be done before we leave but it will all come together and we be flying to the summer.