Watching our first stage of the Tour de France from our campervan and connecting with a French family
2024 – Stage 16
Finding our spot
After watching the Tour de France on TV for 20 years, we were finally there to watch in person! Our evening in Nîmes had ended on an incredible low point with the robbery. We headed toward the route and soon spotted the first neon green race direction sign indicating we were there. We felt a surge of happiness. Our excitement started building seeing other campervans along the route.
Initially, in my planning I had wanted to park further along the route. Due to spending several hours at the police station, we stopped sooner than I anticipated. We found a small dirt lot with other campervans, by a big curve in the road. We certainly didn’t want to be by ourselves after what had happened earlier that day.
We situated ourselves with the door facing the road. After a very emotionally draining day, we were exhausted so we had a late dinner and went to bed. It was a hot night (my fan had been stolen) and it was noisy being parked on a busy road.
Race day!!
I woke up at 6:30, it was already a fun atmosphere with people honking as they drove by and bikers riding past. Around 8:30 they started setting up the traffic furniture and the barrier gate next to us.
We rode our bikes up the road, but it was very busy, and I was nervous with all the traffic flying past us.
In all my reading, people made it sound boring waiting for the race to come by. It was the complete opposite for us. There was so much excitement and activity the whole day. You really have to be ready for anything that may come by. Different vehicles stop all through the day – including the banana van passing out the best bananas, Leclerc handing out their polka dot shirts or the car selling TDF merchandise.
Meeting A French Family
A gentleman parked his old renovated camper next to us. He asked us where we were from and gave us a tour of the inside. Later, he and his family invited us to join them for a picnic. The French know how to have a picnic! I have never felt more welcomed and laughed so much, even though only two people at the table spoke any English.
They offered us water with ice, in real glasses! For an aperitif, they shared olives and sausage, along with our first taste of Pastis 51. For the meal, they brought out a huge spread of food with real plates, forks, knives and napkins. They had a homemade ground-up seasoned pork head (which I couldn’t bring myself to try), pork barbeque, tuna rice salad, couscous with vegetables and, of course….bread.
Meeting this family was one of the highlights of our entire trip. Olivier, Nono and Daniel are all brothers and every year they get together during one day at the race. Sitting with this family was our first experience with the French lifestyle of just slowing down and enjoying the moment. Before we left for France, everyone said that the French were not friendly. In our experience, nothing could be further from the truth.
Once lunch was over, we started getting ready for the caravan to come through. It started to get hot in the sun, thankfully our campervan was in a perfect shaded position. We invited a family from the Netherlands to use our shade, and they shared their candy with us. We loved meeting all these new people from around Europe.
The caravan came through at 3:00 and it was busy! This was where we discovered that we needed a sheet to catch all the goodies. The excitement of the caravan was contagious, and we couldn’t wait for the race to arrive.
It’s race time!
You know the race is getting close when you can see/hear the helicopters. There are many more race vehicles than you see on TV, even before the riders come through. One rider whizzed by and twenty seconds later the peleton came through. I was in tears. I was so overwhelmed with emotion and I had no idea where to look, but I did spot Pogi (Tadej Pojacar). And then they were gone! After the riders go through, there are a ton more race vehicles. You know it’s the end when the tow truck goes past.
As soon as it’s over, everyone packs up to leave. The brothers gave us homemade sausage, which was so much better than the one we had bought at the store. It was sad to leave them – they made our experience amazing. It had been such an amazing day and my face actually hurt from smiling.
Leaving the stage
Leaving was very interesting, as Google Maps showed all the roads still closed from the race. I finally navigated us to the autoroute, and we stopped at an aire to do services, which took us a while because of all the campervans following the race.
We drove and got on the route for the next stage and, again, followed the neon green race signs. (I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting it is to drive along the route and follow the signs). We drove until 10:00pm and found a group of campervans and decided to stop there for the next stage.
Tips
- The evening before, check out the route you want to take to exit. All the roads on Google Maps will show closed for quite a while after the race goes through, so you can’t count on the route it gives you to leave.
- Always have extra food to share with others. I now make sure we have lots of bread, cheese, snacks, and drinks to share. Everyone on the route is so welcoming and loves to share everything they have.
Stay tuned for the Stage 17! If you enjoyed reading this, don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter and to my social media pages! I can’t wait to share with you.