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RVing the Tour de France

By Chuck Woodbury, editor

This essay is from RV Traveler Issue 70, August 3, 2003

Did you happen to see any of this year's Tour de France bicycle race on TV? The Outdoor Life Network did a splendid job of covering it. The reason I ask, is that if you watched the coverage then you probably noticed the countless motorhomes that lined the course.

I had the wonderful opportunity to follow the Tour de France two years ago as a member of the media, and I could hardly believe the huge number of RVs along the French roads, and especially along the Tour de France course. They are most noticeable in the mountain race stages where one RV is squeezed in front or behind another, typically only a few feet away from the race course, lining it like they are parallel parked.

Motorhomes in France are small compared to ours, probably 20-24 feet on average, and they are almost all Class C's with a bed over the cab. Along the 2,000-mile Tour de France course itself, you seldom see a travel trailer (called a caravan), but you do see them on the highways andin the RV parks. They, too, are small by our standards, not much over 20 feet. I don't recall seeing any fifth wheel trailers.

The European RVers who follow the Tour de France with their motorhomes select a parking spot well ahead of the race start time, and then often wait a day or more for the action to pass them by, which typically occurs in literally a minute or so. Nearly all of the race stages go from one town to another, and so spectators only get one chance to see the racers as they pass. And after the racers go by, the spectator traffic going home is so bad that RVers commonly stay the night and leave the next day.

In the evening, when leaving the finish of that day's race for the next town for the start the following morning, I would sometimes backtrack along course of the just- completed race where I would find "cities" of RVs parked in fields and pastures far from civilization. There, with bonfires roaring, dozens -- or in some cases hundreds of fans with RVs — would be celebrating the day's race or just celebrating for the sake of having a good time. It looked very magical and inviting, but, alas, I was in a car and had to proceed to my next hotel.

The French countryside is so beautiful and the camping opportunities so inviting that my "to do" list includes a return trip to France, where I will rent a motorhome. My hotel on that trip will roll along with me.

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