By chance we camped within a mile of a stage in France a few years ago. My son was too young to stand on a roadside for a couple of hours so my wife had to miss it as well. The FIL and I went and I was impressed by the whole thing
Obviously I am late to the party, but have just realised we could all go to a uk stage this year. It would mean a lot of driving (10ish hour round trip?). Although I think they would enjoy seeing the cyclists go past I remember it being over in a flash!
I also remember what's best described as a high speed carnival about 30mins before the pelaton arrived. Lots of wacky cars/vans/small trucks with people lobbing sweets, flags, hats etc driving at about 25mph. At the time I thought "never in England H&S would go mad!"
Does anyone know if this sort of thing happens on the UK stages. Obviously it's all about sponsorship and brand awareness and I guess some of the sponsors are not fussed about us Brits, but in my case it may make the difference between going or not going as I want the family to enjoy it
From the Le Tour Yorkshire website:
"Don’t miss the build-up to the race with the caravan, 2 and a half hours before, where the weird and wacky vehicles throw out goodies to the crowd".
I'm only going for the dancing girls and free Haribo. On the proper Le Tour site it even tells you what time to expect the caravan.