Early morning takeoff from Ponce, Puerto Rico’s Mercedita airport runway 12 aboard a JFK-bound jetBlue flight 740. Seat 19A. This flight was scheduled to depart around 3:40AM, but it was ultimately delayed for 3+ hours because the flight arriving from JFK was delayed about three hours. I personally think the delay was a good thing, since it allowed me to shoot the video in the daylight, as opposed to in the nighttime. =) We takeoff from runway 12, heading south-southeast, then later making a plus-180° right turn to head generally north towards JFK. PSE in Google Maps: goo.gl
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Over 200 of the world’s most highly tuned athletes will climb aboard their bikes later for a 20-day, 2172-mile jaunt across France. We say jaunt…the Tour de France has got to be right up there with the most gruelling and punishing tests of physical and mental endurance on the planet.

In some ways we wish we were going along for the ride. In some ways we said!

Obviously we could live without the tear-inducing saddle sore, the demand to pee in a cup every night to prove our sportsmanship and having to consume 9,000 calories a day every day for three weeks (though we could probably manage the latter if we were allowed to run wild in one the country’s finer patisseries!)

Rather, we wish we could visit many of the incredible countryside spots and villages that the riders will pass on their way.

In fact, the arrival of the world’s greatest bike race has got us thinking about a tour of France of our very own. One where the mode of transport doesn’t require anymore input than the purchase of a ticket. And one that involves something else that France’s famous for.

We’re talking a tour of France’s famed wine regions by train. Thanks to the excellent TGV rail system it’s possible to string a tour together with relatively short times between each destination. We’d love to travel across France in scorching summer and sample some of its great wines along the way. See our sample itinerary below.

Champagne          

Paris – Reims (45 mins)

Alsace               

Reims – Strasbourg (2h, 10 mins)

Burgundy           

Strasbourg ­– Dijon ­– Beaune – Lyon (2h, 25 mins)

Rhone Valley           

Lyon – Valence – Montpellier (1h)

Languedoc           

Montpellier ­– Carcassonne (1h)

Bordeaux           

Carcassonne ­– Bordeaux (3h)

Loir Valley           

Bordeaux ­– Tours (2h, 40 mins)

Return to Paris

Tours ­– Paris (1h, 15 mins)

Written by insider city guide series Hg2 | A Hedonist’s guide to…

(Image: MorBCN)

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