The Tour de France 2023 on your doorstep!
Watching the Tour in person is cool, is fascinating, electrifying! The energy, the collective excitement created by the fans is something you just can’t get by watching the Tour on telly and is even rousing for non-cycling fans!
On Saturday 8 July 2023, the participants of the Tour will set off on the 8th stage from Libourne to Limoges with a total of 201 kilometres. Between 12 noon and 2.30pm, the publicity caravan and cyclists will pass through Ribérac, our nearby market town, a 15-minute drive from our gîte Loups d’Or. The spectacle is to be seen in our region from St. Aulaye to Ribérac, then through Lisle, Bourdeilles and Brantôme.
The 2023 Tour de France will be the 110th edition of the Tour de France. It will start in Bilbao, Spain, on 1 July and ends on 23 July at the Champs-Élysées in Paris.
The first Tour de France took place in 1903 and was basically a publicity stunt to boost the circulation of L’Auto, a struggling daily sports French newspaper. On 1 July 1903, 60 men jumped on their bikes outside the Café au Réveil Matin in the southeastern Parisian suburb of Montgeron.
Because of the hundreds, thousands of fans, the event is one big party. People drinking wine, eating sandwiches, barbecuing and having fun that sometimes they forget watching the peloton passing by!
Watching the Tour is free and therefore the following tips might come in handy:
- Arrive early to avoid road closures
- The all-important ‘caravan’ is fun to watch and is the place where you can catch free goodies, such as flags, T shirts, hats, etc
- Check out the activities and events in the mentioned villages and towns, to take advantage of the day
The villages and towns will be a focal point and will be very crowded, so the best places to see the cyclists will be on the roadside on the route and the best spots are on the hills.
Many cycling enthusiasts are riding all or some of the route days before the Tour or just before, but the police will close the roads off to bicycles about an hour before the Tour de France comes through. Our area has some stunning cycling routes that aren't part of the Tour but definitely worth exploring.
At the time of writing this blog, our gîte Loups d’Or is still available in the beginning of July.
We hope seeing you here during the Tour de France!
Pimm + Marcel
You can book your stay at Loups d'Or here:
Most of our blogs are written to give you more information about the Dordogne, Périgord, where we have Gîte Loups d'Or, our 4-star, luxury, self-catering holiday home. We write about subjects we think are interesting for you to know and to give you inspiration to explore this beautiful part of France yourself. If you have any questions or if you want more information, please feel free to contact us.