France pour le Tour: tips and tricks

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Ok, so I am pretty organised with travel; I like to learn some of the language if it’s a non-English country (unlike Chris G), have internet, know what I am doing (i.e. rough plan), have insurance dialled, spare passport scans cloud-computed etc etc.

Travelling in English-speaking countries is totally cool in terms of just playing it by ear, but non-English makes me edgy. And if it makes me edgy, I know it’s good; because edgy/nervous means I am challenging myself. Doing something like travel in a country whose tongue is not the same as yours is incredibly challenging and incredibly rewarding (I’ve only done it 3 times – Japan, Spain+Portugal and Thailand – so far. Unlike Chris G – the man’s unstoppable!).

But that just means I do a little extra research for car hire, internet, mobile phone roaming (or pre-paid SIM) etc.

On this trip, I had some pretty specific requirements because I’ll be twittering and blogging so therefore need web access on my phone, as well as web access on my laptop (both combined via the mobile).

In countries like Canada, WLAN/Wifi access is pretty much standard in hotels (for free), but on this trip, we’re in a campervan, so need mobile internet. I need internet on my new phone (iPhone or HTC Magic – which one should I get? Anyone have any ideas?I got an iPhone 3GS) for Twitter+Twitpic and internet on my laptop for processing photos and geeting content to the web.

So, here’s a quick list of the little things on my mind and what we have found.

• Mobile phone roaming (including 3G/2.5 coverage) – should I just roam (as I’ll be mostly using data), or should I get a prepaid SIM, or wait and see?)
• WWW on Mobile – how-to do this, and can I use my mobile on the France mobile networks both natively as a phone, and as a modem connected to my laptop? Roam and use alien network data (expensive) or get a pre-paid SIM
• WWW over UMTS/3G for laptops – will my current USB Huawei dongle (currently on 3′s 3G network) work with an orange SIM? Or can I get a cheap prepaid one?
• Conversational French
• Camping spots and rules
• Highway tolls
• Extra baggage allowance for bikes and the ridiculous amount of tshirts I always take, + camera kit, + laptop
• Bike + camera insurance
• Can we drive our car onto the mountain passes to watch the epic carnage? Or do we ride up? Regardless of whether we ride or drive, how close to the race approaching are the roads then blocked?

Can anyone think of anything else I should include?

As you can see, it’s quite a list, and because I have left this too late, it’s going to end up being FBTSOOPKOS (Fly By The Seat of Our Pants Kind of Stuff). Which is ok, as long as we’re cool for internet. For our mobile phones, it looks like we can get prepaid mobile internet from Orange – just wack the SIM in my iPhone/HTC.

With speaking French, well, I did French until Year 11 and have been podcasting it from CoffeeBreakFrench.com so we’re ok there. I realise we’ll probably be ok speaking English, but I think it’s always nice (and respectful) to throw down some of the local lingo.

I have specific camera insurance so that’s sweet, but I think my Westpac Platinum Amex covers bike insurance as the trip was bought on the credit card.

We can hack our way through everything else, but what I will make sure of doing is recording all these little details and compile a France for Le Tour: tips and tricks ebook to be made available when I get back.

I better get onto this stuff!

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Tagged as: organising a trip to the tour de france, shredquest, Tour de France, travelling to france

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