Always Carry a Book

What to do while you’re waiting for three hours for the men’s Tour de France bike racers to come flying up Rue Lepic in Paris? Read a book!

This past July, my brother and I travelled to Paris to visit monuments and eat baguettes and croissants (yum)!! We were there to see the men’s Tour de France bike race in the Alps (stages 19 and 20), and then the Grande Finale (Stage 21) in Paris. The entire experience was absolutely amazing!

In addition to the loveliness of Paris itself, and the excitement of the tour, one of the images that has stayed with me the most is how many people were reading books. They were in cafés, in parks, on the Metro, and while waiting for the Tour de France racers to come barreling up the street.

As an author and avid reader, I was heartened by that! No one was on their phone, mindlessly scrolling. Instead, people were eating and drinking, talking to friends or strangers, or reading books, even on the Rue Lepic, the famous cobbled street that leads way up to the Côte de la Butte Montmartre. The Tour de France racers did this lap THREE TIMES. Whew!

There was plenty of time to dip one’s nose into a mystery or a classic book, like Le Vice et la Vertu (pictured above).

If I had known it was a cool thing to do, and that I’d be standing there for three hours waiting for the racers to fly by, I would have brought any one of the following books (which I am either finished with or near finished). I recommend them all!

The Frozen River, by Ariel Lawhon

Verity, by Colleen Hoover (whew, this was a page-turner!)

The Bookseller at the End of the World, by Ruth Shaw

On Call in the Arctic, by Thomas J. Sims

When She Comes Back: A Memoir, by Ronit Plank

North of Ordinary, by Sue Aikens

Eight team cars and sixteen motorcycles later (at 58 seconds), you’ll see the leaders of the second lap! Third in line is Tadej Pogačar, winner of the 2026 Tour de France. He’s wearing the “maillot jaune” –the yellow jersey. Don’t blink!!

Happy reading (or cycling)!