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The Awards Judge Organization proudly announces the
Winners of the First Annual 2015-16
NEW BOOK AWARDS
Los Angeles, CA—The Awards Judge Organization has announced the Winners of the First Annual NEW BOOK AWARDS. The New Book Awards were created to boost recognition for outstanding literary achievement 
filtered out of a wide spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. One purpose of the awards is to bring attention to independent and self-published works that might otherwise go unnoticed. The New Book Award winners range from well-known and established writers to aspiring authors and first works. There are no quotas for diversity; the winners list simply reflects the quality chosen through a natural selection process.
The Awards Judge Organization (AJO) is a national independent product review & ratings commission.
The full text of the press release announcing the list of award winners including "It's Only A Bike Race" can be found at www.newbookawards.com
Riding a bicycle around France during July sounds like an idyllic way to spend a few weeks during the summer. Visiting different regions of the country while on a leisurely ride through vineyards and sunflower fields seems like a fun pastime in which all French gentlemen should aspire to partake at least once during their lifetime. Just to add a little adventure and interest to the two-wheeled vacation, there would be a small prize for the first man to return to Paris. …. This was the ill-informed overall impression of the Tour de France that the author had gained during five years of studying French at high school on the other side of the world.
Some twenty years later when he was able to make his long-awaited first trip to France, he began to discover that his pre-conceived notions of the event were removed from reality by a large distance - over 3,000 kilometers to be exact. Having realized the extent of his original misperceptions about the Tour de France, the author was eager to discover whether it was still possible to enjoy the Tour de France in the way he had visualized it as a youngster. Substituting a campervan for a bicycle, he decided to follow the Tour de France for three weeks with the aim of enjoying the race while simultaneously taking in the sights, sounds and tastes of France. This book tells the story of his quest.
July 18, 2014
During the rest day of Le Tour, we moved further south to a lovely campground in the lower Alps in a picturesque setting overlooking a river and lake to the mountain beyond. Driving to and from the race for the next few days would involve driving along the edge of spectacular river go…
To describe the experiences of the last three weeks while living in Giselle the GlobeScout camper van as simply enjoyable would be an understatement akin to describing Paris as merely an interesting place to visit. Giselle had carried us in comfort and safety over 5,000 kilometers of autoroutes, sub…
We are now on our way back to Paris and I am writing this in the van while my wife is taking her turn at the helm of Giselle. Our redneck repairs seem to have held up well so far, but we don’t want to tempt fate any further and are driving at a speed of 80 km/h (50 mph) to reduce the wind speed over…
During yesterday’s rest day my wife drove us most of the way across the south of France from Provence to the Pyrenees while I tried to catch up on my blog and sort through my photos. On the way out of Provence we stopped for breakfast at Joucas, the lovely little old village near where two years ago…
Today’s Stage 14 required us to travel back down the mountain with my wife keeping her eyes firmly focused on the road as we negotiated each turn, and allowing herself only minimal enjoyment of the spectacular Alpine views that I was trying to point out to her. The stage began in Grenoble which was …
We awoke with a slightly sad feeling this morning to think that our days before leaving France were numbered. W
e had joined Le Tour at Stage 4 and were now about to witness Stage 13 of the 21 that comprise each year’s Tour de France. On the way to watch Stage 13 we stopped at McDonald’s to use their…
Stage 12 started in the city of Bourg-en-Bresse, not far from the Swiss border. On our way out of campground in the morning we picked up our pain cereale that we had ordered the night before. We expected it to be a rural type of bread and were not disappointed. It was a dark brown loaf encrusted wit…
Monday July 14th
Bastille Day
July 14th is France’s national day, known as Bastille Day. It is thus the equivalent of July 4th in the US or January 26th in Australia, which reminds me of the comment I received from an American acquaintance a few years ago: “So your July the 4th is in January…
Bonjour! My name is Giselle and I am a GlobeScout camper van based on the chassis of a 21-foot Fiat Ducato truck. I know I am only young, just 8,054 kilometers old, but this past week I have carried two passengers like I have never carried before. They speak a strange language (especially the man) a…
Friday was our first opportunity to observe Le Tour in a mountainous setting. We parked our van 17 kilometers from the finish line on a long uphill stretch of road that the papers predicted would separate the riders from one another as they tackled the challenging climb. 
This would allow us to see t…
The route of Le Tour de France is following a clockwise rotation this year, as part of the annual rotation that sends it anti-clockwise in odd-numbered years. This all means that after the first three stages in northern France we are now finally heading in a direction that brings us closer to the su…
Sometimes a Sandwich is More Than a Sandwich
It rained all day again today but nothing could diminish the beauty of the countryside we drove through on the way to watch Le Tour. One may think to explain the unexpected attractiveness by saying that this particular part of France is different because…
Stage 4 Hits the Road
A continuation of the rainy weather that has prevailed since our arrival in France did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm for the first stage of the 2014 to take place on French soil. The alarm seemed to sound much earlier than 7.30am but that was probably because we had slept s…
And we will be there!
On Tuesday Le Tour arrives in France and the whole country will be ready to watch. Your faithful correspondents will be ready to watch and report from the road. We will be located at La Chapelle d'Armentieres and will be seen on TV between 9:46 and 10:01 Central time. Exci…
...oft do go astray.
Our flight to Paris went just fine, and after a few teething problems we are finally on our way to join Le Tour. The van is quite new and very comfortable, even if it the logo on the side makes it look like it was borrowed from A.T. & T. We had planned to spend our first…
FIFA World Cup vs Le Tour de France
With only 3 days before the Grand Depart of the 101st Tour de France, it seems that the attention of French public is focused on Brazil instead of Yorkshire. The imagination of the country has been captured by the French national soccer team which plays agains…
Only three weeks until the adventure begins.
You're looking at a picture of our home on wheels from July 4th onwards. While people all across America are celebrating Independence Day with their families, my wife and I will be in Paris getting used to the camper van that will take us around France…
