Le Tour 100

Monday 15th July travelling south for 'Le Tour 100'



Whilst we had been staying at Lake Annecy we realised that the Tour de France was happening a few miles south. Actually it was quite a long way away but it was the 100th anniversary so it seemed appropriate
to take a major detour to watch the race for a day.

Monday was a rest day for the Tour so we decided to get ourselves on the route between Vaison la Romaine and Gap - the 16th stage. It was a long drive, we were on the road by 8am and stopped for breakfast by another lake at Aix de bains. It made for a pleasant breakfast stop. our route south took us through Chambery and Grenoble and along some other mountain passes. We stopped on one of these for lunch and chatted to a French couple who had travelled from Lyon with their two girls to watch the tour also. At 4pm and in wonderful weather we eventually stopped on a mountain road outside of Sedderon where after much manouvering we succeeded in getting ourselves off the road but not down the cliff .


 Much of the route was already filled with camper vans of all nationalities. Close to us were two Czech vans and further down the road a dutch couple who have seen every Tour de France for the past 16 years. There were also Dutch, German and Belgian families and of course French. We also chatted to an English couple who loaned us their Tour programme so we were able to get up to speed before tomorrow. It was all very exciting especially as Chris Froome was currently in the 'yellow jersey' position. By the evening the heat had died down a little and we offered to take our neighbour's dachshund for a walk. Its owner (Czech) was elderly and walked with sticks so we felt that this young dog would welcome a longer walk. Overcoming our language barriers we set off up the mountain to talk to more spectators and to take in the lovely mountain views.



Tuesday 16th July

We could have a lie in this morning as the Tour was not expected until 2.30pm and we were all set up in our viewing position. The first part of the morning we spoke to an English couple who were following the later stages of the Tour and who were planning a camper van trip to Greece in August. We shared some of the good places we had visited and wild camping spots.  Later on we were joined by another young British family who lived in Switzerland. They were on there way to a French campsite but had stopped off to watch this leg of the Tour. They had two girls Charlotte and Lucy who were keen to use our van to escape the fierce heat that was building up.  At 12.30pm the caravan came through. This is the sponsors' time to chuck freebies, water and anything else at the spectators. The two young girls loved this part.




At 2.30pm the breakaway group came through. It was good being on the hill as we had plenty of time to see them. The pelaton led by Team Sky came through about 7 minutes later but this was fast enough for Chris Froome to retain his yellow jersey.

It was extremely hot as we packed up and headed west to our next destination the Dordogne. We eventually stopped outside Aubenas at a municipal campsite (15 euros) as we needed electricity to keep the fridge working. It is really struggling on gas in this hot weather.

 We also had internet access so made some effort to catch up with our blog. Mike skyped his sister and Millie and then about 1030pm there was the noisiest thunderstorm yet. It rained all night and was still raining when we woke up in the morning.