It has become quite a juggling act. We would like to cycle for lots of the months of the year, but we also want to maintain, if not actually operate, our small farm, not to mention house,  on Vancouver Island. During the summer, growth is rampant here and we need to keep an eye on it, so that leaves three possible cycling seasons, and the question of  where to cycle. 

We have landed on the idea of being somewhat north in Europe in late Summer, but of ending in the south of Europe. That way, in early Spring we can start off in the south and finally stash our bikes in the north.

So here we are in late Summer, and our bikes are "north", near Paris. That's good. So we should cycle around "north" but end "south". We have rather settled on Valencia in Spain as being south. It's a great city, and a place where we have located a reasonable storage locker.

That makes this trip loosely Paris to Valencia. But there is a very important add on this time around:

Our three Montreal grandchildren seem to have long memories for ones so young. And they seem to remember that we promised to take them cycling in Europe one day. They are now calling in their chips, causing us to think about where exactly we would go, and when. The kids, unlike us, also have better things to do, so it looks like a two week expedition. And except for a long ago foray with us east of Montreal, they have no touring, or even much cycling, experience. So we thought about the classical itineraries: the Mosel, the Danube, the Rhone - all well developed and mostly flat river routes. Somehow, we settled on the Loire. It does have the advantage of being in France, and for what it's worth these kids speak French, but otherwise I can't remember how we made the choice. 

One good thing, we ourselves pedaled the route this Spring, so we had an eye open for what would be interesting stops, and whether there were any difficult bits. We then put Dodie to work scoping out the exact route, and trying to book space for six people and six bikes at appropriate spacing along the way.

Six people and  bikes? Two Grampies and three kids equals five! But we found that the airlines are not keen on unaccompanied kids. We work only on 90 day trips for ourselves, so hopping back and forth to North America on a 14 day thing would not work. Fortunately, Josh, the kids' dad (and our son) was able to join in. We get the extra fun of Josh along, and since he is (surprising to us) now an adult, he can shepherd the kids back and forth. In fact, the four plan to first also drop in at Barcelona, where Seattle grandkid Avi will be taking a Spanish course.