Ask any wine expert and he or she will assert red wine only goes well with red meats and red sauces. Ask us and we'll expand the list to include red meats, red sauces, and bike tours. This especially proves true while pedaling through France's wine-magic Bordeaux region. A ride we like to call our Sip, Savor, and Sightsee tour.

Located in southwestern France, Bordeaux is our only tour where a corkscrew rates higher in importance than a tire repair kit. This region boasts over 500 chateaux (Bordeaux's term for vineyards), producing some of the most bodacious (our term for fantastic) cabernets and merlots in the world. Wine-making superstars such as Haut-Brion, Latour, Lafitte Rothschild, and Mouton Rothschild, to name a few, all originate from here.

The sensory wow-treatment is not limited to taste. There are plenty of eye-dazzles too. The works of Delacroix, Matisse, Renoir, and Rubens grace Bordeaux's Musee' de Beaux Arts. The sleepy village of Saint Emilion abounds with Gothic architecture dating back to the 13th century. And south, near the coastal town of Arcachon, the Dune du Pyla towers 115 meters (377 feet for the metrically challenged) high, making it the largest dune in Europe.