Why a Booktrail?
2000s: 83 year old George and his friend Charles have long dream of going on a road trip….driving the 3500 kilometres that make up the stages of the Tour de France….
Fetch your cycle, get in your car and let’s hit the road….
George’s Grand Tour
What you need to know before your trail
George and Charles are friends and neighbours who live in Chanteloup in France. They live a quiet and sedate life eating and drinking and watching the telly – well George is 83.
But the two of them have had a dream for a while of going on a road trip. Now that George’s daughter Adele has headed off to South America, he wants to focus on his dream knowing that she wouldnt be able to put him off. Heck she wont even know he’s gone not as if they’re close. And following the route of the Tour de France is it.
But this is the old man version – where bikes are replaced with a brand-new Renault Scenic, complete with GPS. So when Adele calls – will she scupper his plans or can some carefully diverted phone calls do the trick?
George has a dream – and part of that dream will involve learning text speak and doing things he never thought he’d be doing at his age!
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Imagine two old men in a car travelling the distance of the Tour de France 2008- that’s quite a trip! And their motto?
“Down with the dictatorship of aches and pains, and down with the doctors who stuff us with pills, and down with the daily routine that’s sending us to our graves. We’ve got to rebel. And when the end comes, well, we can bow out with dignity.”
The Stages
The Stages – missing out stage four as they’ve decided not to count the time the cyclists spent in Cholet. They plan quite an epic journey –
1 Brest – Pumelec 2 Auray- Saint- Brieue 3 Saint-Malo – Nantes 5 Cholet – Châteauroux 6 Aigurance Super-Besse 7 Brioude – Aurillac
8 Figeac – Toulouse 9 Toulouse – Bagnères-de-Bigorre 10 Pau – Huatacam 11 Lannemezan – Foix 12 Lavelanet – Narbonne 13 Narbonne – Nîmes
14 Nîmes – Digne le Bains 15 Embrun – Prato Nevoso 16 Cuneo – Jausiers 17 Embrun – L’Alpe d’Huez 18 Le Bourg d’Oisans – Saint-Étienne
19 Roanne – Montluçon 20 Cérilly – Sant-Amand – Montrond 21 Étampes – Paris – Champs-Élysées
This might be the tour but the real trip is what they see and the people they meet along the way.
But their journey doesn’t exactly go to plan since is wayward and bothersome family members seem high intent on scuppering their plans. It might not be what they envisaged at the start of their idea but its rather a journey of grandfather and granddaughter in the end – and the overriding sense that life is one big adventure if you open your eyes and don’t accept the limitations and expectations society and other people place on you.
Old age is a grand old adventure in itself it would seem.
For the tour de France information check out the official website here
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
This was both funny and poignant so a hanky is not a bad idea. Bless them both but especially George who explains whey they are going on the tour ‘because they want to’. Well if you cant do what you want at 83 when can you?
The loss of his wife has hit him hard and it was very sad to see him think of her and reminisce. Enjoyed learning about the relationship between him and Adele – but loved the friendship between him and charles and those he meets along the way.
I willed him on, I cheered when they reached one stage and then another. I laughed at the confusion of phones and even things in his own county he hadn’t really thought about before.
But then at the end I cried – but I had one heck of a smile on my face as I thought of George.
Where Next?
