France on this site is three very different places: the big Tour de France climbs of the Alps, three days and 7,755m in August 2012; the Côte d'Azur and the Maures around Ramatuelle and Bormes in 2011; and the French side of the Doubs at Goumois, a short climb into France from the Swiss Jura.
Most of my French riding has been from somewhere else. The Doubs at Goumois is the border, and the French side, Charmauvillers and the Plateau de Maîche, is part of most of my Jura rides. The Alps were a trip with friends for the climbs everyone knows from the Tour. And the Var was a family holiday by the sea.
The Alps here are the Tour de France's home ground: the Galibier, first used in 1911 and the Tour's roof more often than any other climb, the Glandon, the Télégraphe, and Alpe d'Huez with its 21 numbered hairpins, the Tour's first-ever summit finish in 1952. The Var is the opposite: short, sunny climbs off the coast into cork-oak forest, with the sea always in sight. And the Doubs is gorge country: a deep river valley with the border running down the middle and a plateau on each side.