Did you know that France has a paved secondary road network of over one million kilometers? This doesn’t even include highways and ‘national’ routes, i.e. there are a million kilometers of ridable roads. The United Kingdom, with the same population (but half the area), has about 40% of France’s network. Canada, about 18 times bigger than France in terms of area, has around the same size network and the UK.

Add to this, one of my favorite stats: France has half of the communes (municipalities) of the entire European Union, with a commune being anything from a couple of houses across the road from each other to villages and towns. There are 35,000 communes in total and they are all connected by paved roads.

There are lots of reasons why France is the best place in the world to ride, but this one is the foundation of all the rest.