Hello all and thank you in advance for taking the time to read my post!

I am traveling to Nuremberg, Bavaria in July and would like a little advice. While there, I will be participating in a triathlon in Roth so that 5 days or so will be spent in and around Roth and Nuremberg. After that, my wife and I would like to go to France to see a stage of the Tour de France. Afterwards, she would like to go to Italy and drive through the Alps.

To us, this seems very ambitious for our first trip to Europe. I was born in Nuremberg, but we left Germany when I was very young so no real memory of it. We were planning to rent a car for that 2nd week. I know that the trains are a great way to travel, but with our baggage and my bicycle from the triathlon, I do not see how this would work on a train.

In the end, I guess what I am looking for is advice on this type of trip. My wife speaks a little French, but other than that all we know is a bit of Spanish. Will the language barrier be an issue when we go to France or is it easily managed? The one advantage that I do have is that I will be going to Italy for work in the next few weeks so I can do a little research and get a feel for it while I am there.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

CJ

No real problem with language. First, you'd be amazed to see how one can communicate by gestures. Second we Europeans are used to meeting people who don't speak our language. Third we all speak some English, esp in the cities and esp in tourist industry. Just dont' forget to say bonjour and merci and everything will be fine. Ah, and if you don't understand our accent, do an effort...

thibaut,

Thank you for the reassurance and fast response. Trust me, the last thing that I want to be is disrespectful. We will both do our best to learn what we can in preparation.

CJ

I hope you can put your luggage all in the trunk with nothing showing in the car's back seat. My friend had her rental car broken into at a stop in France. Backpack taken.

I'm not sure you will be able to rent a bike carrier with your car. Many make use of the tow bar, which of course rentals don't have. The ones which use the tail gate wouldn't be allowed either because of the danger of damaging the car. Where are you flying into and out of? Maybe you can arrange to store you bike in its flight case at, or near the airport.

I don't think the route for the Tour has been announced yet so until it has you can't really plan that part of your trip. Try to aim for a mountain section so you have more time to appreciate the cyclists. On many sections they just whoosh past in a fast moving blur of Peleton.

Cars get broken into anywhere in the world. Mine has never (touch wood) been broken into, even loaded up with luggage. Don't leave valuables (passports!) in the car though.

Be aware of one way rental fees if you a renting the car in one country and want to drop it off in another.

Good luck with the triathlon!

The final route of the 2019 Tour de France will be announced on Thursday, October 25th.
La présentation officielle du Tour de France 2019 a lieu jeudi 25 octobre 2018 au Palais des Congrès de Paris à 11 heures. Cette cérémonie est l’occasion unique de vivre en exclusivité le dévoilement du parcours du prochain Tour de France par Christian Prudhomme mais aussi de revivre les meilleurs moments de l’édition précédente. La prochaine Grande Boucle marquera également les 100 ans du Maillot Jaune, de quoi espérer de belles surprises…

It seems pretty ambitious to me, too, unless you have a couple of months. The language issue would be WAY down on my list of concerns. And you can easily use trains all over Europe with a bicycle - that shouldn't be an impediment.

It seems like just a pipe dream in the making at the moment, though I guess that's at least a start. You are aware, I hope, that seeing the Tour de France involves about 10,000 times more preparation than viewing. We've "seen" it twice in the past couple of years here where we live in SW France, and yeah, you get yourself situated at 9 am with bottles of water, maybe a bottle of wine, maybe a thermos of coffee, and some bread and some cheese and some anchovies or smoked salmon, and around noon the promotion cars come by, teasing you with tiny sausages and flimsy cotton backpacks and discount coupons for LeClerc and stupid cotton golf caps and gum and M&Ms and you have to listen to their loud broadcasted BS, and then there is this hairline of guys on bikes that starts to fly by, and then a mass of them in a cluster that lasts about 2 seconds, and then there's always the straggler or two....and it's over. It really isn't something worth planning a vacation around.

If you could plan a trip around seeing them end up in Paris, that is something I think would merit a look-see.

1) if you brought your bike from the USA you will have a bike box. I suggest ship it home and get on with your holiday
2) if that is not possible, stay a night in a Bettundbike and ask the owner to store your bike till you come back for it
3) logically you have only 8 days, I'd chose two sites for a holiday, say one in France and one in the Alps or Jura or Dolomites
4) language, Europe has goodness knows how many languages in it and yet we get stuff done, so we are used to working through language issues and of course the main tool for this is English. There are monoglots in Europe but not where you are going
5) watching the Tour is best done from a sofa, trust me. The race last 45 seconds for watchers.
6) If you decide to take your bike on a train note that fast trains require you to do all kinds of tricky stuff with a bike in a box while slow trains let you roll on. seat61.com does cover this somewhere.
7) car tour of Europe. Done it, various friends and family have done it. It is slow and painful, if possible take the train. If you are going outside cities then a car makes sense but you can rent locally. I'd dump the bike as above.

Taking bikes on trains is not allowed on many faster trains and a hassle if allowed. But you could send your bike ahead by FedEx or whatever to your final destination hotel or at huge expense ship it back home. Car seems to be better though valuable bikes yes may attract eyes of thieves. For lots on trains and bikes and trains in general check www.ricksteeves.com and BETS-European Rail Experts and as bilbo says www.seat61.com. If renting car try to rent and return in same country to avoid steep drop-off fees for not doing so.