Looks like it’s going through our village this year! I’ve never seen it 
Any tips? Should I try to see it, stay at home, leave the area? What’s your experience?
It’s likely that you won’t be able to get in or out of the village for a couple of days, or by weird routes because they keep the bit the cyclists go on clear. It’s very strange (I thought), it’s crammed with people and especially campervans, there’s the caravane du tour where you get packets of eg saucisson chucked at you, T-shirts etc. and the cyclists zip past in no time - but it’s very bon enfant and fun all the same.
Of course the day it went through chez moi is the one day in the entire summer that the heavens opened and it poured.
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That’s interesting, thanks @vero . I think I know most of the back routes into the village but if all else fails, I can walk, even though it’s a bit of a stretch.
Is there a reason for throwing stuff into the crowd? Seems a bit odd to me…
I haven’t been to the TdF in France itself, only an opening stage when that happened in London a few years back, but I have watched other cycle races - they zip past extremely quickly so if you can position yourself on a sharp bend where they are going slowly you will have a better chance of seeing what’s going on and getting photographs!
When I tried to photograph the Olympic Road Race in 2012 I made the mistake of standing on a straight bit of road and got virtually nothing except blurs!
Depending on where you are along that day’s route there will usually be a breakaway group of a few riders up at the front, then the main peloton, followed by stragglers and the team cars.
With the TdF there is also a big cavalcade of sponsor’s vehicles that parades ahead of the race chucking goodies into the crowd, which is part of the fun.
If you tune in to race radio you will be able to find out what’s going on and when to expect the racers to come by.
Here are a few of my photos from the Tour of Britain 2013 (Sir Bradley Wiggins in the yellow jersey) - click to enlarge:
(ETA: the image where the riders are blurred is achieved by setting a slow shutter speed on the camera (around 1/30th second), panning with the camera to follow the action and then having a flash on the camera fire to freeze the motion of the nearest rider. It needs a reasonably powerful flash to reach so won’t work with a phone.)
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Freebies, souvenirs, that sort of thing. The sponsors usually have amusingly spivved up vehicles and gee the crowd up with noise and freebies. Also as you often can’t see where the riders are (although all the campervans have their televisions on with the helicopter views) the caravane lets you know they are coming.
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If you’ve never seen it - you should. It’s a bit underwhelming depending on location.
The start/finish towns tend to go all out - and there’s road closures everywhere. Some of the larger towns on the route put up viewing screens and make a day of it - the smaller ones it wizzes through (but roads are only closed for a couple of hours).
It came by the end of the chemin - 10 minutes walk from us 2 years ago. The actual tour lasted maybe 10 seconds - the caravan a lot longer - the long picnic lunch lasted 3 hours
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Sponsors stuff - the green Skoda bucket hats - Carrefour Polka Dot jersey - that every other spectator wears on camera all day long…
T shirts last about 3 washes…
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Oh join in, it’s fun. There will likely be a village groups doing decorations which are totally unnecessary but add to the atmosphere.
There roads will be closed about an hour or so before on a rolling basis
The published timing are generally quite accurate so you can chose to go see the caravan, which is totally daft, or wait until cyclists come through a hour or so later. The caravan comes through tooting and beeping, children scream and you get hit on the head by mini baby bels or similar. The publicity cars are quite impressive and you don’t really see them on TV. It’s loud!
In some places if nice weather people will then picnic beside the road until the cyclists appear.
When the cyclists come through it take but a few minutes so you try to chose a spot where they are slower, like a tight bend, if you want to see them. Otherwise a spot with a view of the road so can see the whole cavalcade. The red car is the Director and occasionally you also have VIPs close to the main action. Depending on the day you will have a helicopter overhead.
Once they have passed through you then have the horror the team cars and coaches pouring though. Often about 300 cars and coaches. The Tour is not environmental in any way whatsoever.
We’ve been going for years and always had some fun. This is it coming to our village
And the how many hats, tea towels and bum bags can you wear competition
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The road past chez moi, the only one giving access to the chemin leading to my house, was closed off for 24 hours. But that’s just because of the particular itinerary of the tour that year (2014) and the nature of the roads chez moi, they actually went in a loop around my house.
The contre la montre the next day was in lovely non-baking sunshine.
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Contre la montre is our favorite if weather good. But mean to be stuck for a whole day.
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It was fab! They left from the main street in Berg, I hadn’t seen the little launching ramp before, great fun.
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Contre la montre? I’ve not even seen the TdF on TV so it’s all a bit alien to me…
Time trial. They come through one at a time, very fast, with their team car behind screaming at them if in a tense spot. And a minute or two between each unless people have caught up.
(you might have guessed I am a long time fan)
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It’s a time trial I suppose in English, they leave every 5 or 10 minutes and do 50 odd km and whoever does it fastest wins, very bourrin.
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Heathen
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@JaneJones I love the CLM, don’t worry 
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It went through our village, past our front door last year. I recorded the program and it went to an ad break when the leaders were about 200m from our house and the program resumed after the peleton had gone past 
. I did record some of it on my phone though. The same happened when the 2014 tour went past our house in Yorkshire. If you’re lucky, you may get a tour t-shirt thrown at you but it’s mostly small things like sweets and key rings etc. loads of floats, some quite elaborate go through an hour or more before the first riders and they all chuck stuff into the crowds. In our village it seemed to be just villagers and friends, no motor homes or half naked idiots.
We had about a thousand campervans in and around the village, it was absolutely extraordinary, there were more of them than actual villageois. And a gazillion people who came to watch because you theoretically got a good view over the roads from the top of the hill. Obv they/we were all completely drenched and saw very little more than zooming cyclists in fact - and there was a spectacular pileup about 2km from the finish line because of the slippery road.
July 2014: Writing Home: "I think I'll start ...
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Vire will have its 15 mns of fame, as Etape 6 finishes here.
When they say hilly - 
a total of 3500m climbing over the 201kms. A cyclista said that it’s not the length of any one climb but the relentlessness of the climbs "they just keep coming… " that will sort out the heroes from zeros.
As for spectating - the route goes east long the valley of the Vire, in front of my house [flat] and then turns south to climb the hill opposite my kitchen window.
Vire’s claim to fame, before this, goes back to 1966. That year, the World Champion of tripes and andouilles was M. Michel Ruault. The peleton will zoom past his factory [yellow highlight] as they cross the bridge at the end of l’ecluse.
The river makes a sharp turn west at the bottom. At the moment, with all the rain, it’s white water from the bend under the tall house centre/left all the way down and round. There’s a crew with diggers and cranes doing major works to the riverbed and banks, presumably to make it a bit safer for the mad hordes that will be lining the road.
I spose I could have cashed in - 3 dbl beds - but my Danish pal booked in weeks ago. There’s some DK rider who is a top man at this lark.
To drive - he won’t hear of flying - all the way from Aarhus to see a bloke on a bike whizz past in seconds, along with a lot of other blokes on bikes … 
But I will make sure he brings soe Aqavit and good roll-mop herring.
When the weather improves I shall drive the route. Start with The Tapestry and then meander the 201 kms to Vire.