Traveling around France in July without hotel reservations

I haven't traveled in July, but I think at minimum you will have to be prepared to be very flexible. Having a car helps a lot in that department.

I routinely travel all over France at all times of the year and never make a reservation.

HOWEVER, the entourage of the Tour, let alone the crowds, would give me the jitters about having to sleep under a bridge. You obviously know the dates it will be in each place. Maybe spot-check on venere.com for a few places on the applicable days and see what it's starting to look like?

Formule1 might not be to your liking. It has only a sink in the room; you must march down the hall for the toiletes and showers (all are self-cleaning cubicles). Etap has identical shrimpy rooms, but everything's en suite. The two are often co-located and generally have some kind of gated parking.

A couple of tricks with these two: the desk is generally not manned except at breakfast (not worth the price) and late afternoon/early evening. When no one's around the door to the lobby is locked but the outer door to the foyer is not. There's a kiosk in the foyer. Insert the card with which you made the reservation into the slot and a hunk of paper will spit out with a room assignment and a door combination. This combination will also open the door to the lobby and the gate to the parking area. If you have no reservation and stick a credit card in the slot, it will give you a room if one is available.

If you seach at accorhotels.com instead of the link above you can check for both at once as well as those higher up the food chain in the Accor family. Using the map feature makes it easier if you don't know exactly where the cities are.

I agree with previous poster. During the tour you will have "special pricing" I would target small towns near the starting or finishing of each stage and drive to those towns. I highly recommend reservations.

France in July, their month for vacations, following the Tour...., and hotels. Be sure to have cell phone that works in France, food, water, toilet paper and sleeping bags in the car. Places are going to be scarce and special pricing does not mean cheaper this time of year. A laptop and cell phone might come in really handy in booking rooms. Find hotel on laptop and call them. You never know how long it will take for them to answer an email. Also find out where the travel aid locations are in the towns you want to visit. They can get you rooms.

Personally, I would pre-book rooms this time of year.