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| Today's leaders in the Tour de France |
It has been a day to remember,
probably the one and only time I will get to see the Tour de France.
I was actually up when the
Gendarme came around to collect our camping money this morning. Popped into
town and picked up some bread at the boulangerie then we got organised to take
a picnic with us. Ian got the bikes out, tied a stool onto the back of mine and
we headed off soon after 12. It was all of about 1 1/2kms and the roads were so
quiet as so many were closed for the day while the tour came through. Found a
spot and Ian parked his “portable armchair” and I got my stool. There were
heaps of people already at the round-a-bout where the Tour was passing by, and
it was like a great street party. People had chairs out, some had tables and
everyone had food with them. We were beside two families, one from Brittany and
one from Normandy and ended up having a great time chatting. Their English was
pretty good. The hype built up and just after one o’clock the “caravan” or
“circus” as it is sometimes called started coming through. Have never seen
anything like it. All the sponsors had huge decorated cars and trucks with
people throwing out goodies. They whizzed past with music playing from their loud
speakers and horns blowing and everyone was cheering. Those riding on the back
of the vehicles were harnessed in as they were travelling at quite a speed.
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| Lots of people shots, loved these two Gendarmes posing for a photo. |
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| The start of the Caravanne |
There was a gap of about an hour
where official cars whizzed through. The Gendarmes were busy keeping the crowd
in control and blowing their whistle when anything was passing by. I decided
that I didn’t have the best view to take photos so about 30 minutes before the
riders were due I squeezed my way through the crowds and around to the other
side where I managed a great spot to catch them head on as they turned the
corner. Ended up having a long chat with a really nice Belgium family who were
both teachers and spoke very good English.
The excitement built, helicopters
were overhead and then following gendarmes on bikes were the first two break
away riders with a 5 minute lead on the peloton. The crowds were cheering and
in a few blinks they were gone, followed by car after car with their roof racks
loaded with spare bikes. But this really was well worth waiting for.
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| The leaders.... |
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| ...and the paleton. |
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| "Spare parts"! |
Enjoyed riding home and passing
all those on foot! Decided to move on a bit this afternoon and after doing all
our “camper ablutions” we headed for an Auberge that was listed in French
Passion, about 45 minutes’ drive away. Didn’t quite know what to expect as
couldn’t quite understand the French description but evidently you could
reserve a table for dinner. Spoke to the gentleman when we arrived but we had
quite a job understanding each other, gathered though that we couldn’t have
dinner as hadn’t reserved, which actually suited us fine. But it is a very
pleasant place to overnight in, surrounded by rolling countryside, church bells
and roosters in the distance.
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| A peaceful overnight spot. |
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