Alps Spectator

Welcome to France! We will be meeting in the lobby of our Lyon hotel in the late afternoon. Our modern hotel will be home for two nights and is located next to the Parc de la Tete d’Or, the largest urban park in France. There is also a local train/metro that runs into Lyon city center.

Tonight we’ll enjoy a welcome dinner in the hotel restaurant. In addition to meeting our fellow travel guests at dinner, we’ll go over the itinerary for the trip. Each guest will receive a gift from Custom Getaways and from Tour de France. You will also receive a discount card for 30% off official le Tour merchandise.

We’ll hit the ground running with a morning visit to The Basilica of Notre Dame de Fourviere. This basilica offers a unique architecture with a byzantine, gothic and romanesque inspiration. Following our visit, we’ll transfer north to the finish of today’s stage in Belleville-en-Beaujolais. This uphill finale may produce an excellent sprint contest between a small group of riders.

The group will tour the official podium and have pictures taken individually and as a group. After the podium, we will view the finish of Stage 12 in the Izoard VIP venue. Generally located near the finish line, this venue has snacks, drinks, beer, champagne, TVs and private restrooms…a great way to see the race!

Dinner is not included tonight, so it is a perfect opportunity to explore the city and find a cool place for local cuisine. Lyon is world renown for its cuisine and wines. Bon Appétit!

Happy Bastille Day! We will have a little free time this morning before we make the drive to the Relais Etape VIP venue to view Stage 13. This venue is located along the race course and serves an excellent 4-course meal with soft drinks, beer, wine and champagne to toast the stage winner.

Another nice feature of this venue is that the caravan passes right in front of us and throws gifts to the crowds. After the caravan passes, you will be have a great view of the racers as they pass. Also, each guest will receive a gift from le Tour.

Our next hotel is nestled near the base of Mont Blanc, in a ski town called Chamonix. The town offers a number of restaurants and shopping. You’ll be on your own tonight for dinner. With today being Bastille Day, you’ll most likely catch a firework show to celebrate this national holiday.

This morning we will take the little red train up the mountain to see the glacier, Mer de Glace or Sea of Ice. This glacier is the largest glacier in France. The train will take us on a scenic ride to the top station. From there you can view the landscape and glacier from a platform or tackle the 440 stairs down to where you can enter the glacier. Inside the glacier is pretty spectacular and you’ll definitely get your steps/flights of stairs in today. Of course, you must tackle the 440 stairs back up.

After our tour, you will have free time for lunch and exploring before we meet back at the hotel to watch the end of the race on TV and to toast the winner of today’s stage and also our victory completing 880 stairs.

After the finish of the race, we will enjoy a group dinner in the hotel’s restaurant with local dishes and wines.

We start today with a short drive to Les Gets, the starting town for today’s stage. You will love the energy of the Start Village. We will have VIP access to the Start Village with coffee, snacks, tour officials and merchandise tents. The tour organizers have informed us that the village and start area are not connected. There may be a short walk from the village to the start area, where you can witness the riders interviewed before they begin this important mountain stage.

After racers depart, we will have lunch in town before driving to Montreaux, Switzerland. Our hotel is located on Lake Geneva and has amazing views of the mountains over the lake. You can walk on the boardwalk to the statue of Freddy Mercury, from Queen, who lived out his last days in Montreaux. The town will be busy as the yearly Jazz festival will be wrapping up. Our farewell dinner will be at the hotel.

Your guides will drop you mid-morning at the Geneva airport (GVA).

We hope to see you again soon. Au Revoir!