Fat Man on a Bicycle (BBC Radio Collection)
by Tom Vernon
Category: Bicycle touring

Tom Vernon - the thinking man's Alan Whicker - who donned his metaphorical beret and cruised through France on two wheels, delights us with the subtitles and diversity of everyday French living. He visits the more popular areas of France such as Normandy (and Tom's ancestral town of Vernon), Brittany, Champagne, Alsace and Lorraine, the Loire Valley, Languedoc, and Lozere-Averyron-Cevennes. From whom else would you learn about the woman in the Cevennes who kept all the silkworm eggs of the village in bed with her for 15 days, until they hatched? Or where you can eat a salad of geziers (chicken gizzards) followed by duck breast with green pepper sauce accompanied by courgettes and bechamel, all for 85F?