A VdC is a Véhicule de Collection. The bike in the photo is a 500X and the other bike is a Voge 300 Rally.
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In my previous life, before being le_Pest I was an IAM advanced motorcycle instructor.
Biking anywhere is safe as long as one pays attention to the road and other road users blah blah blah.
I used to have big bikes (BMW 1000cc +) Sadly the last bike stayed in my French barn for 8 years unused. A couple of years ago wife kindly bought me a Royal Enfield 350, probably just to get me out the house on quiet work days.
I loved it, but to ride 350cc 24bhp through winding country roads (Cher/Allier/Creuse) it was too underpowered. I upped it to a 650cc Royal Enfield Super Meteor; it’s perfect for the windies, urban and rural, long distance.
France is a fantastic country for biking, all bikes wave at each other, car drivers usually make way for you.
Get a motorbike if you want to cruise in the Creuse. Respect other road users and watch out for the ‘magic trees’!
Happy to meet up with other mid-range, middle-aged bikers [in central France].
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@Mike313 - the road surfaces are generally good and I can’t speak for driving skills and safety levels in UK or Ireland, but I find that Frenchies (at least here in bandit redneck land (The Cevennes)) are a bit dangerous in their riding and car driving. So as long as you can anticipate bad cornering, no or incorrect use of indicators (especially at roundabouts), overtaking in dangerous places and speeding …all will be cool!!
I noticed alot of chaps en retrait who have gone out and bought big bikes (like GS’s ) and they simply can’t handle the kerb weight. Probably also no compulsory training either judging my their entry and exit lines on corners.
As an aside, Im not sure if the UK police still teach advanced riding using Roadcraft, but back in the day, after doing the advanced driving stuff on bikes with seriously good police riders, you kinda felt much much safer on the road.
In summary, riding a bike in France is a pleasure but you have to adapt to the idiosyncrasies (priority au droit being one of them) and keep it shiny side up ! 
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I find PaD far less of a worry on the motorcycle as I do in a car. On the motorcycle I presume that all drivers at junctions are likely to pull out in front of me whether they have priority or not. 
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How do you find riding a motorcycle at roundabouts? Bad enough with a car and the way the french use roundabouts and indicators.
My preferred option is to be through and gone before they get a chance to be silly 
More seriously, I just constantly expect the worst and position myself accordingly.
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Don’t forget that you are talking about a different country, different ways of doing things… 
Not really any different from driving a car.
Didn’t France have a TV road safety campaign about 20 years ago?
Time for a re-run perhaps.
yup indeed! 
Yes true that but the French do teach their driving students how to approach and exit roudabouts just like they are taught in UK…but most of the time (here in bandit land at least) the practice is largely ignored…infact, I think here, (at least) the indicator level is deliberately pulled off or used as a thing to hold shopping bags.
I noticed though that driving skills and behavoir on the road got better towards and beyond Toulouse…so perhaps the further North you are, the better the driving?? - dunno.
BUT…I used ot sit my driver in the passenger seat and drive myself in Islamabad and in Karachi and if you can survive the driving there, you can drive anywhere in the World. (In Karachi, common to expect olf 4 tonne Bedford trucks, camels, donkeys and cyclist coming at you at all angles and directions. Roundabouts where brutally fun!! 
The trucks look like these:
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I take it you mean car and bike riders because they certainly teach lorry drivers differently. I have no idea what car and bike riders are taught in France but I do know what lorry drivers are taught, and it isn’t the same as UK. (I only think mind you, because I have never been taught to drive a lorry in the UK)
What took me ages to get used to is lorries who are going straight on at a roundabout indicate left as they approach it.
Yes, I think we have covered this before, lorry drivers are certainly taught that in France and I totally agree with it, firstly because it is safer for others and secondly because I have always followed the principle, with care, long before I came to live and work here, being self trained originally in England before such training existed. So I was very happy to see it made official here.
Just to be clear though, we don’t indicate left if we are going straight on, only if there is an exit before that ‘straight on’ turning. The idea being to make it clear to those drivers ahead and behind that we intend staying on the roundabout. Once our last unintended exit is passed we immediately switch to the right indicator. But always with care because of the frequency of others to try and overtake on roundabouts. Happily I see more and more French roundabouts being changed to insist on one vehicle only entry and no lane markings on them.
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Or not in the case of indicators, I blame the way they are taught, no logic behind how they indicate.
Hiya - yes, I know that lorry drivers do it differently here in Europe on roundabouts and they are not the culprits because they have been schooled well.
They have refresher courses every few years and I was required to attend once. 3 drivers in the cab, each having a turn at the wheel and one instructor. I remember the instructor, when explaining the roundabout rule and pointing to the first exit which we didn’t require, saying that the continued left indicator was to ‘informer les autres’. Another thing which stuck in my mind was when approaching a pedestrian crossing I remarked ‘In the UK pedestrians have the right of way’. His answer was ‘yes, in France too’. Which did both please and surprise me having seen many French drivers (or drivers in France 
) ignore such a rule.
It did amuse me though that 2 of our number could not wear seatbelts, there only being 2 of course, the others were perched precariously on the bunk. I did wonder who would be prosecuted had a gendarme stopped us. 
UK rules on this have tightened up quite a bit recently - pedestrians now have priority over motor vehicles just about everywhere, except on the exit from a roundabout. As do cyclists.
So for example if you want to turn into a side road and a pedestrian is waiting to cross, you must wait for them, whereas previously you only had to give way if they had already started to cross.
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That is new to me then, I alwys thought that they had to have one foot on the road to claim precedence. Bit annoying though when two people choose the proximity simply to have a chat though.
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mmm. Interesting! I always hit the right turn signal(this was in Australia) before entering the roundabout especially if in an artic pulling a dog, even if I was going straight through. Many Monaro and Falcon GTs used the big roundabouts there as a means to get past quickly (justified - I do it myself when possible) without realising that a truck turning eats up more outside road than one might think…