One of the curiosities of driving through the Val du Loire is that often in this watery land traversed by the Loire, the Loir, the Cher, the Maine, the Indre and the Vienne - to name just a few - is that much of the time, you don't actually see the river. Instead you roll along high dykes designed to keep water out, low cottages hide at roof level behind earthworks, castles peer off tufa cliffs, roads turn at right angles. Then suddenly, there'll be a large expanse of wild river, herons and wading birds, shifting sandbanks, willows and islets, an ancient multi-arched bridge with old armorial. Nevertheless the rivers have still shaped the landscape and its villages in a unique blend of nature and man-made: the perils of controlling it, the risks of crossing it, castles to see off invaders, and countless churches, abbeys and shrines to save the souls of those who perished in it. If you're not following the Loire à Vélo, you can also get close up to the river on foot along the GR3, one of France's oldest long-distance footpaths.

My pulse quickened as we turned off a bustling Valencian thoroughfare to find our hotel in a rather run-down neighbourhood, next to the "Chicken Palace" and opposite the Valencia Hell's Angels Club. Thankfully, the Petit Palace Germanias loomed audaciously above its paint-peeling neighbours in a restored fin-de-siècle crimson-hued building. This is just the sort of place that typifies Valencia's urban renaissance. Venerable old buildings have been regenerated and the warren-like streets of the atmospheric old town are now inhabited by trendy bars, boutiques and restaurants, while the City of Arts and Sciences on the drained riverbed of the Turia is defined by eye-popping modern architecture. And with the America's Cup arriving at the shoreline next summer, the city is developing on an almost daily basis.