Cycle the classic cols of the Tour de France

On our Tour de France cycling holiday, as well as taking you to some of the more ‘high profile’ locations such as Bordeaux, Alpe D’Huez or Nimes that are always crowd pleasers, there are more than a few ‘hidden surprises’ in store as we visit some remote and undiscovered destinations. Don’t confuse ‘remote’ with ‘little to offer’. Our quieter locations such as Vaison La Romaine, Avigliana (Italy) and Bigorre de Bagneres also provide us with excellent opportunities to visit wonderful places of historical significance.

Included in our list of UNESCO Heritage Listed Sites and Conservation areas to visit are Pont du Gard outside of Nimes, Col du Tourmalet and Col D’Aspin in the Midi-Pyrenees, Mont Ventoux in Provence and the historical site of Lourdes.

Re-visiting the same family owned and operated hotels in smaller towns and villages such as our Hotel Residence in Bigorre de Bagneres or our hotel in the secluded town of Aussois and sharing with you their local markets, out of the way restaurants and their customs has earned us a rapport with our hosts and local business owners that is irreplaceable.

Group size is kept to a reasonable number so that you can enjoy all aspects of your holiday with an ease that comes more naturally with a smaller group, thus any unintended negative impact on the environment can be also kept to an absolute minimum. At the end of the day we dispose of any collected rubbish while out riding to the hotel. Where possible, this rubbish is then recycled by the hotel itself. Please describe your approach to minimising water waste on tour in France.

The best way we know how to ensure our company approach to responsible travel is exercised throughout each tour is to have the owners of the company guide you personally. We encourage you before and throughout the tour to treat your host country as you would your own home, providing you with ‘Responsible Travel Tips’. These may range from something as simple as perhaps bringing enough cycle clothing to ensure you able to do an ‘economy’ wash rather than wash every day, thus reducing our water usage to showing a healthy regard for our hosts by attempting to use a few simple words of their language.

When we are not on tour, we continue to practice our responsible approach to the environment. We recycle and use environmentally friendly products wherever possible such as our cleaning products, energy efficient light bulbs and recycling our rubbish.

As a community initiative, we have raised sponsorship funds to invest in a quantity of bicycles and bicycle related equipment and now offer a cycling programme to our local youth. The equipment and expertise of our coaches are offered free of charge in an attempt to promote cycling to the young so that they may discover a whole new side oto cycling they didn’t know existed.