Bike World News

If you ever plan to travel to France for the Tour, Graham Watson’s Tour de France Travel Guide: The Complete Insider’s Guide to the Tour! would prove to be an invaluable resource. The alternative may be full hotels, blocked routes, overpriced food, chaotic roads, and endless frustration as you try to get close to the race you’ve traveled far to see.

Watson shares his 31 years of Tour de France experience in this beautifully illustrated guidebook. It includes over 200 of his award-winning photographs along with full-color maps, travel tips, checklists, and travel resources. The book presents a fresh and unique strategy for getting around the Tour’s many opportunities for frustration to find a front-row seat for all the action.

The book opens with a little of Watson’s history as a fan and photographer of the Tour de France, from his early days shooting pictures on the roadside to being a fully accredited photojournalist that gets to travel with the peloton on a motorcycle.

He provides a number of resources for those who would like to ride their bike on the same roads as the race as well as information about the best online resources to find hotels along the race route.

He recommends that you make your travels plans as early as you can. The route for the next year’s race is usually announced in October and if you do not make reservations early, you may find yourself sleeping in your car. He also tells you the best ways to get around, either by car, train or bike.

He gives a cultural, gastronomic and geographic overview of each of the regions of France that are typically visited by the race and clues you in about the best hotels, inns and restaraunts.

There are other special sections about the history of the race, some of his favorite riders, a glossary of French cycling terms, some of the key climbs of the race and how to photograph the Tour.

Even if you are not planning to visit the Tour next year, this book should prove to be an incredible travel resource for years to come. If you are like me, it will leave you saying “some day, some day” to yourself and dreaming of the time that you will travel to see the grandest of the Grand Tours.

Graham Watson’s Tour de France Travel Guide: The Complete Insider’s Guide to the Tour!
Text and photographs by Graham Watson
5 5/8″ x 7 7/8″, 304 pp., VP-GWTDF, $24.95, 978-1-934030-38-7
Flexibound paperback with flaps. Full-color photos, maps, charts, and tables throughout.

* Since 1903 the Tour de France has visited over 500 towns and villages. Watson has followed every stage of 31 Tours de France, a pedigree few can match.
* A completely modern guide, annotated with websites and the latest contact information for hotels, restaurants, trains, car rental, bike rental, camping, tourist information, and more.
* Lavish 4-color interior, handy size, and flexible binding with flaps make this travel guide inviting, durable, and easy to use.

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