We were among the last off the ferry in Cherbourg, and we had to stand in line for passport control for quite a while. This was Sue's first trip to Europe, and she was eager to get as many stamps in her passport as possible. Visiting France had been her dream since she was a small girl, having been raised by her Francophone mother who along with other sundry Quebecoise relatives had filled her head with a romantic vision of the "mother country". When the bored douanier waved her passport aside without the precious tampon, she asked him to stamp it properly. "But madam", he said, "if I stamp it you will have to leave in 90 days." Thus began our love affair with France.

I'm someone who needs goals. So in my touring life I have always tried to define a goal for each tour for motivation, and to give ma a point where I can say "it's over". This tour is part of an ongoing series based on the Federation Française de Cyclotourisme's Brevet des Provinces Française. The federation has defined six sites in each of France's departements (excepting some of the departments in the region around Paris) that must be visited. Visit all 534 sites, and you are awarded the brevet (diploma). To make the task a bit more manageable, the country is divided into 36 provinces which correspond more or less to the provinces of France under the ancien regime. For each province completed, one may purchase a medal that corresponds with the coat of arms of the province on it. So far, I have 15 of these. This tour is to add yet another two or three to the collection. I plan to start south of Paris, go around the city to the west before heading into Normandy proper east of Rouen. I will head to the coast and then zig-zag my way west, alternately going inland and back to the coast. If time permits, I'll head south from Cherbourg and cycle along the eastern edge of Brittany to the Loire valley, where I'll end the tour. Along the way, I hope to see the sights I missed on my previous visits to the region, as well as to revisit some of the more famous places to see what's changed since last I was there.