AlexGuerreiro

Hi all,

I'm planning a trip to watch Le Tour de France 2013. This will be my first time in France. I am planning to start following the Tour from Nice, then go all the way to Castres. While the Tour is up North, I will be traveling to some cool places (not decided which ones yet). Then I want to meet the Tour again when it is arriving in the Mont Ventoux. On the next day, go to Chorges, Grenoble, and Lyon. Watch the final stage in Paris.

Would you guys give me some advices, tips (hotels, places to visit), etc?

Thanks you very much!

Sincerely,

Alex

Christina

I haven't watched the Tour, so can't give tips on that exact thing (although in smaller towns, people just kind of line up alongside the road, I believe). I think the riders themselves often take up a lot of the rooms in hotels in these small towns as I was going to be in one once when they were there.

So I think it is a little early to worry about hotels, actually, you need to figure out your itinerary a bit more as to exactly where you want to stay for each stage and then a budget for a hotel, and then maybe you can ask that later when you get more set.

I've been on Mont Ventoux, it is right near Carpentras. There are lots of small hotels and B&Bs in that area where you could stay. Stay in the smaller towns for some good rates rather than in, say, Avignon or Aix. Carpentras probably wouldn't be that expensive but I have trouble driving around that city.

How do you plan to get around to all these places in France, that isn't clear to me? You aren't going to drive all over France, are you?

AlexGuerreiro

Hi Christina,

Actually, I'm pretty nervous about hotels; lots of them are already booked near the stages (start/depart) - well, I am searching most of them on booking.com. I was told to search for chambre d'hotes, is that the same thing as B&B? Where can I search for B&Bs.
I`m planning to follow the Tour by car. The idea is to rent one in Nice. After the depart in Castres, the Tour goes to the North part of the country, and after 7 days will arrive in Lyon. During this days, I would like to visit some medieval cities, like Carcassone, and some other beautiful places, then start moving to the Mont Ventoux region.

The car will be returned on Grenoble, then I want to go to Paris by TGV.
I will be traveling with my wife and my mother (it's not a honeymoon trip, hehehe); so it would be nice to stay in a room for the three. I think our budget for hotel is around 80 or 100 euros a day.

Thanks for your reply.

StCirq

I would map out your route and then go to the websites of the towns you'd like to stay in. Every town and village will have one, with a list of all kinds of accommodations. France, BTW, has some chambres d'hôtes, which are like B&Bs if by that you mean a room in someone's house, but they are not as common as in some other countries. You might actually consider renting a gîte for a few days in a central place and use it as a base to get to see a stage or two.

You really don't want to plan to stay in the actual towns the Tour riders are staying in, trust me. Hotels and restaurants will be packed, parking and traffic will be a nightmare. And you don't want to plan to just drive along behind the riders, either. You'll be completely at odds with the mother-in-law and possibly your wife before Day 2. A better plan is just to intersect with the tour when it is between towns and set up camp (a couple of hours at least before the first promotional cars come along).

justineparis

In paris it will be hard to impossible to find a triple room( which is what you will need unless you plan on taking two rooms , a double and single) for 80-100 euros , at least anywhere near where you can see race. I would really try and cheap out other places so that in Paris you can pay at least 150 for a triple,, and look for that by january -feb at latest.

Christina

well, given you will have a car, you don't need to stay in the same town, so look nearby. If you are looking for a B&B, I imagine booking.com might not have that many, I would just think a lot of B&B owners wouldn't us it. Just a guess.

Here is a good small local hotel chain in France, try it http://www.logishotels.com

or try the Chambres d'Hotes website itself
http://www.chambresdhotesfrance.com/

Not sure of your budget, but this is the place I stay in near Carpentras, and they do have rooms from 85 euro and an enclosed car park which is good. You could easily stay there for the Mt Ventoux and Vaison la Romain days. Their reservation tool claims they have no rooms in the Tour dates but they don't have any in July or August or some other periods, so I think it just doesn't work this far ahead, to be honest. I've never reserved there this far ahead, I do it in Feb-March for July.
http://www.hotel-lhermitage.com/

indy_dad

Maybe this will help or at least be of interest:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-de-france.cfm

annhig

stop press - tour de france winner knocked off his bike!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20246940

injuries not life-threatening - serves him right for shaving off his lucky sideburns.

annhig

PS - i didn't mean that to sound callous - i'm a big wiggie fan and hope that he is back on his bike asap.

AlexGuerreiro

It`s so cool to receive all these replies.

I`m from Brazil, and this will be my first time in Europe. I`ve been dreaming about this Tour since 2008. Iso I must be ready and prepared to have the best time of my life!



All the information so far will help me a lot. I`m bothering my French teacher every day to help me as well.

AlexGuerreiro

It's so nice to receive all these replies.

I'm from Brazil, and this will be my first time in Europe. I watch Le Tour since 2004. I start riding and became really passioante for the sport. I've been dreaming about this trip since 2008. I really want to be prepared to have the best time of my life.

All the information, tips and links, will be really helpful, and since we are few months away from the 100e, I will be waiting for more info.

Thanks every one.

Christina

good, I think if you look at the logishotels.com website you can see some options. Put in a central city or town to where you want to be, and it will show its listings within a reasonable radius. For example, put in Carpentras for the Mt Ventoux leg and it shows a couple hotels in Monteux which is just a bit SW of Carpentras.