Surely this is the worst part....

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Geo: 39.3759, -104.86

I have found relatively little about HOW to plan one of these here Tour de France-following thingies. But hey, I'm a (part-time) travel agent, so this ought to be easy-peasy, yes?

Um................No.

I have learned by reading the articles at VeloNomad.com (and his ebook, Guide to Campervanning in France) enough to know that I needed to get the camper reserved by mid- to late August. In a normal year.

Easy enough.

Except that I have to guess at what dates we want the van, and where we want to pick it up & drop it off. Oh, and the actual TdF route isn't announced in full until late October.
But at least this time -- because it's Super-Special and all -- they announced the dates and locations for the 1st 4 stages.
Apparently, we're going to Corsica -- cool! But now there's this little decision to make: Do we pick up the camper on the mainland, then ferry it over to Corsica (paying for that, and a few additional days of camper)? Or do we pick it up after the Corsica stages, and go from there?

At this point, we've decided to do Corsica by car first, then pick up the campervan in Nice. Great....Decision #1 done.
So, that leaves just:
<ul><li>Get quotes on campervans, and decide on one</li><li>Reserve a car on Corsica</li><li>Book the ferry to & from Corsica</li><li>Book lodging on Corsica</li></ul>Easy, no?No.
Figuring out who rents campervans in France, and from whence you can pick them up, and when those whences are open, and what's included, and all, is a little dizzying.There are multiple white-label sites, many of which can get you to the same provider, but it's a little tricky to tell where you're actually getting to.I finally got quotes from a couple of companies. Between the time I requested the quotes, and the time I got them, I made the decision to do Corsica by car, so I need to adjust the pick up dates just a little. In the amount of time that it took to get the quote, made the adjustment request, and hear back, several companies had seemingly sold out.Now I'm (literally) losing sleep over this, and starting to panic just a little. I got a quote that looked good, and clicked the little button to start the booking (and deposit) process. Trouble is, perhaps in the amount of time that I was actually reading the Terms & Conditions, now the date I wanted to pick it up is sold out.Ack.And that's just the campervan itself.Finding a place to stay on Corsica (near the city we want to be near) is a whole other Oprah.I think I'll make that a separate post (and maybe I'll have an answer on the campervan by then).

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