Tour de France 2011

The 98th Tour de France starts from Passage du Gois La Barre-de-Monts on Saturday July 2nd and finishes in Paris on Sunday, July 24th, 2011. This year’s race is made up of 21 stages covering a distance of 3,471 kilometres, 129 kms shorter than last year.

Race Stage Profiles

• 10 flat stages
• 6 mountain stages and 4 summit finishes
• 3 medium mountain stages
• 1 individual time-trial stage (41 km)
• 1 team time-trial stage (23 km)

Particular Features of TDF 2011:

• le Galibier will be climbed twice *
• 2 rest days
• 23 level 2, 1 or highest level mountain passes or summit finishes
• No bonuses during the intermediate sprints and stage finishes

* To mark the hundredth anniversary of the first climb of the Col du Galibier by Tour de France cyclists, the Galibier will be climbed twice after an interval of 24 hours.

* Last year’s 7 cobbled sectors were harsh on the riders and it looks like cobble stones are out this year! Sigh of relief for the riders!

15 New Stage Towns

Many travellers (myself included) have become keen followers of the Tour de France as it includes an interesting travel element. The magnificent Tour coverage is rather like a travel show, bringing back fond memories of sights and towns that many have been to. This year there are 15 new stage towns to delight travellers:

Blaye-les-Mines, Cap Fréhel, Carhaix, Carmaux, Cugnaux, Galibier Serre-Chevalier, Limoux, Modane – Valfréjus, Mont des Alouettes Les Herbiers, Mûr-de-Bretagne, Olonne-sur-Mer, Passage du Gois La Barre-de-Monts, Pinerolo (Italie), Redon, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux

The selection of the above towns goes through a rigorous process. The town must be able to ensure that the peloton is able to arrive and depart under optimum conditions in terms of sporting entertainment and rider and public safety. There are lots of other practical considerations as well.

For fans of Le Tour, if you’re doing any travel to Europe, you may wish to plan a little detour in your itinerary so that you can witness this great race.

Le Tour Route

Sat   2 Jul – Passage du Gois La Barre-de-Monts > Mont des Alouettes Les Herbiers
Sun 3 Jul – Les Essarts > Les Essarts
Mon 4 Jul – Olonne-sur-Mer > Redon
Tue 5 Jul – Lorient > Mûr-de-Bretagne
Wed 6 Jul – Carhaix > Cap Fréhel
Thu 7 Jul – Dinan > Lisieux
Fri  8 Jul – Le Mans > Châteauroux
Sat  9 Jul – Aigurande > Super-Besse Sancy
Sun 10 Jul – Issoire > Saint-Flour
Mon 11 Jul – Le Lioran Cantal
Tue 12 Jul – Aurillac > Carmaux
Wed 13 Jul – Blaye-les-Mines > Lavaur
Thu 14 Jul – Cugnaux > Luz-Ardiden
Fri 15 Jul – Pau > Lourdes
Sat 16 Jul – Saint-Gaudens > Plateau de Beille
Sun 17 Jul – Limoux > Montpellier
Mon 18 Jul – Département de la Drôme
Tue 19 Jul – Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux > Gap
Wed 20 Jul – Gap > Pinerolo
Thu 21 Jul – Pinerolo > Galibier Serre-Chevalier
Fri 22 Jul – Modane – Valfréjus > Alpe-d’Huez
Sat 23 Jul – Grenoble > Grenoble
Sun 24 Jul – Créteil > Paris Champs-Élysées

Tour de France 2010 Route..

The 97th Tour de France will start from Rotterdam on Saturday July 3rd and finish on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday, July 25th, 2010. This year’s race will be made up of 1 prologue and 20 stages covering a distance of 3,600 kilometres.

Race Stage Profiles

• 1 prologue
• 9 flat stages
• 6 mountain stages and 3 summit finishes
• 4 medium mountain stages
• 1 individual time-trial stage (51 km).

Particular features of this year’s race

• le Tourmalet will be climbed twice
• there’s a hint of the classics and cobblestones*
• 2 rest days
• 23 level 1, level 2 and highest level mountain passes

*Each year the organizers think of new ways of inflicting additional pain on the riders! For the 2010 Tour programme, the 3rd stage, Wanze-Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, will include 7 cobbled sectors over a total distance of 13.2 kilometres, split up as follows:

• 3 sectors over a total distance of 2.2 kilometres in Belgium
• 4 sectors over a total distance of 11 kilometres in France

Oooh! I feel the pain! The last 5 occasions when cobbled sectors were included in the Tour were in 1981, 1983, 1985, 1989 and 2004.

11 New Stage Towns

In talking to fellow travellers, many have become keen followers of the Tour de France as it also has an interesting travel element in it. The Tour coverage is rather like a travel show and many who watch this race have been to various parts of France and this great race brings back memories of those trips. This year there are 11 new stage towns to excite travellers with:

Arenberg Porte du Hainaut, Bourg-de-Péage, Bourg-lès-Valence, Gueugnon, Longjumeau, Pamiers, Pauillac, Sisteron, Station des Rousses, Tournus, Wanze (Belgium)

The selection of the above towns goes through a rigorous process. The town must be able to ensure that the peloton’s arrival and departure is able to take place under optimum conditions in terms of sporting entertainment and rider and public safety. There are lots of other practical considerations as well.

So fans of this great and gruelling race, yours truly included, if you’re doing any travels to Europe, you may wish to plan a little detour in your itinerary so that you can witness this great race.

Tour Route

Sat 3 Jul – Rotterdam > Rotterdam
Sun 4 Jul – Rotterdam > Bruxelles
Mon 5 Jul – Bruxelles > Spa
Tue 6 Jul – Wanze > Arenberg Porte du Hainaut
Wed 7 Jul – Cambrai > Reims
Thu 8 Jul – Épernay > Montargis
Fri 9 Jul – Montargis > Gueugnon
Sat 10 Jul – Tournus > Station des Rousses
Sun 11 Jul – Station des Rousses > Morzine-Avoriaz
Mon 12 Jul – Morzine-Avoriaz
Tue 13 Jul – Morzine-Avoriaz > Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
Wed 14 Jul – Chambéry > Gap
Thu 15 Jul – Sisteron > Bourg-lès-Valence
Fri 16 Jul – Bourg-de-Péage > Mende
Sat 17 Jul – Rodez > Revel
Sun 18 Jul – Revel > Ax-3 Domaines
Mon 19 Jul – Pamiers > Bagnères-de-Luchon
Tue 20 Jul – Bagnères-de-Luchon > Pau
Wed 21 Jul – Pau
Thu 22 Jul – Pau > Col du Tourmalet
Fri 23 Jul – Salies-de-Béarn > Bordeaux
Sat 24 Jul – Bordeaux > Pauillac
Sun 25 Jul – Longjumeau > Paris Champs-Élysées

Map of France

Virtually all multi-country Europe tours pass through or originate in Paris, but few see much more of France. It is possible to do a pretty extensive tour of France but even so some fairly important areas will be missing or only covered briefly. Regional tours are popular and give you more of an insight. Here’s a pretty complete route that would take at least 24 days (plus Paris):

Note: links to the towns go to photo albums on the Travel Signposts website

PARIS – Versailles – Rouen – Caen – Normandy Beaches – Bayeux – Mont St Michel – St Malo – Nantes – Chateaubriant – Angers – Saumur – Usse – Tours – Amboise – (Chateaux country: Villandry, Azey-le-Rideau, Amboise, Clos Luce, Chaumont, Blois, Chambord, Cheverny, Chenonceau) – Cognac – Limoges – Brive La Gaillarde (Lascaux) – St Emilion – Bordeaux – Biarritz – Lourdes – Carcassonne - Montpellier – Stes Maries-de-la-Mer (Camargue) – Arles - Avignon (Chateauneuf du Pape) – Luberon - Aix-en-Provence – St Paul de Vence – Nice – Cannes – Monaco – Grenoble – Annecy - Chamonix - Beaune (Vezelay) – Nuits-St Georges – Gevrey-Chambertin – Dijon – Colmar – Riquewihr – Strasbourg – Metz – Verdun – Reims – Epernay – PARIS (Chartres, Giverny)

You’ll note that there are some “detours” which could be chopped off if you wanted to travel straight through, eg the Lascaux Caves section. On the other hand, I have not named all the interesting villages etc in some regions, eg around Arles and Bordeaux. And some major towns, like Nimes, could be used as an alternative to those listed. But it gives you an idea and constitutes a good cross-section of what France has to offer. Regional coach tours can be judged according to what they miss out!

Don’t know where a place is? Try our google satellite map (just zoom in and use the map interface): Map of France

Other France pages:

Travel to France for a Europe Tour with Joie de Vivre!

When to travel to France: weather and seasons

Useful facts, dates and links to help you plan your tour of France

Food in France: a brief gastronomic tour

Book your sightseeing tours or day-trips in France online

Book your hotel in France online

TOUR ROUTES IN FRANCE: PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS

Paris: Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees

There’s a lot more to France than Paris and Provence. Travel to France involves a journey into the whole French way of looking at the world, and life. Not for nothing do we use the french words “savoir-faire” and “joie de vivre”!

France lies at the crossroads of European culture

With the mediterranean influences of Italy and Spain in the South, and the more phlegmatic influences of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands in the North, France lies at the crossroads of European culture. A tour of France involves a continually changing landscape, not so much of a physical nature (though that is often true) but rather of traditions, architecture, food and wine, ways of life and even language.

An inexhaustible variety of landscape

Watermill near Bayeux

From the plains of Flanders and Normandy to the rocky coastline of Brittany, the historic Chateaux of the Loire Valley to the green farmland and forests of Bordeaux and the Dordogne, the mountainous Massif Central to Beaujolais, the Rhone and the French Alps, and Provence’s limestone hills to the sun-drenched beaches of the Cote d’Azur, the only stone-cold certainty about a tour of France is its inexhaustible variety. And the rich, memorable experiences you’ll encounter wherever you go in this always-surprising country.

Travel to France for a Europe tour with joie de vivre indeed…and that’s even without Paris!

Our France pages:

Tour Routes in France

When to travel to France: weather and seasons

Useful facts, dates and links to help you plan your tour of France

Food in France: a brief gastronomic tour

Book your sightseeing tours or day-trips in France online

Book your hotel in France online

Paris City Guide

TRAVEL TO FRANCE WITH US: PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS