Le Tour

Brilliant idea. Let’s try to catch the Tour de France somewhere between France and Spain, in the Pyrenees. I know…how? I was skeptical we could make this happen, but when else would we have the chance to try? Pourquoi pas? If all went well, we would be traveling through France just at the right time and place on July 9. With that in mind we booked a B&B in the small, remote village of Vidouze just 30 minutes outside of Pau, France for the start of Stage 8.

But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

…heading into the French countryside we made a fun stop at the hilltop city of Carcassonne, an unconquered citadel on route to the Pyrenees. With its 53 watchtowers and double-walled fortifications, it is truly medieval!

The kids had so much fun meandering the rolling, cobblestone streets behind the walls and perusing shops for shields, armor, battle axes and swords. The boys scored a couple slingshots, which ended up being a lot of fun in the field at our countryside B&B.

Booking the countryside B&B turned out to be one of the best decisions of our trip so far, for many reasons. The outdoor space was idyllic and the kids made great use of it with bocce ball, soccer and badminton. We enjoyed the lounge chairs with umbrellas, rustic picnic tables, a large lawn and plenty of space for Fiona to spend time with the butterflies and lizards. Herb plants and fruit trees were everywhere…the scent was incredible. Simply a wonderful place to be.

Each morning our host, Corine, set a lovely table and offered us fresh baked bread and cake with homemade jam, marmalade and so much more. Nate’s favorite was “framboise” (raspberry) jam.

Back to Le Tour…

We decided to skip the start of the race in Pau, to avoids the crowds and urban hassle, and instead see the bikers in action mid-stage (plus we slept in too late). Our house host, Micheal, was extremely helpful making sense of the Stage 8 route and he and Sean talked through options for where to catch it. We wanted time to comfortably navigate country roads with our ‘large’ minivan (didn’t want to go too high up in the mountains of the Pyrenees. Been there, done that).

Michael showed us where to cut through Tarbes, head up the foothills to a small Midi Pyrenees town, Sainte Marie de Campan. We found a parking space along the road, hiked up about a half mile to find ~ 300 people gathering along a tight curve in the road, lined by a few brasseries, a pizzeria and a dance festival. The cyclists were to plummet down the hill, round the bend (right in front of us!) to then start a third of five major climbs that day. It was a perfect spot, perfect conditions. The boys roamed, Fiona petted a dog while Sean and I found a spot right at the curve. Within 30 minutes, the caravan of team cars began racing by, soon followed by the three leaders, the peloton and 4 other groups. It was awesome to see in person, particularly after watching for so many years on TV. It was truly an experience.

To top the day off… after the race, we went back to the B&B for a quick rest, then headed to a quaint little restaurant in the middle of nowhere, La Palombe Gourmande in Lascazères. Undoubtedly the best meal of the trip at this point. Lascazères is a tiny, quiet, elegant village just 10 minutes north of Vidouze. The kids had incredible steak frite, Sean and I had (prix fix) warm goat cheese salad, grilled fish, local red wine and profiterole for dessert. Amazing. Side note, I have not had a bad glass of wine in Europe, even the house wine most places is fab.