Travel Tales
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| Naomi, Civita and baguette along the Tour de France. |
Every month we feature funny, cautionary, or inspiring anecdotes from travelers. If you have a true (short) travel tale to share, send it to stories@ricksteves.com. If you have a photo that illustrates it, please attach it. And don't forget to tell us your first name and the city where you live. We'd love to hear from you!
Tour de Civita
With my Rick Steves' France book, careful planning and an open mind, I traveled with my own bike to ride several stages of this year's Tour de France. Amateurs (like me) are allowed on the actual Tour de France Stage routes before the professional athletes race through — it's an amazing experience!
Before my trip I purchased Rick's Civita Day Pack, which I used daily on the Tour to store spare bike tubes, maps, water — and my daily baguette purchased from a local boulangerie. The pack neatly stuffed into my regular luggage, and turned out to be the BEST item in my gear for travel.
I am proud to report: the Civita made it, on my back, to the very top of the Col du Tourmalet, a legendary Stage in the Pyrenees Mountains.
The French were amused to see me ride up the Col with bread poking out of my little red pack!
A very friendly Frenchman took this photo of me, my bag and baguette. Thanks for a GREAT product, which I will always have fond memories of in the future.
— Naomi in Sugar Land, TX
Fine print: We reserve the right to edit and post all Travel Tales submissions. Please provide us with your full name and city/state. We will not print your last name or email address in Travel News.