Touring the countryside and THE Tour de France

Day 41 - Saturday - July 23
David and Becky have been our contacts in Paris as we planned our trip. They are originally from Eugene but have lived in Paris for the last 30 years or so. They offered to spend their Saturday showing us the area by bike. They are avid cyclists and have toured all over the world by bike.

We rode the train for an hour to get out of Paris. David is a pro at getting through the train station and we learned a lot following his lead, like how to get a bike down an escalator.

This is the real thing.....a chateau.

Many small towns have preserved their lavoirs, which was the communal laundry prior to modern washing machines.

David explained that this kind of wall was always associated with a chateau and surrounded their private hunting grounds.

And here is said chateau.

Lunch found us at this well-stocked little village market.

There was a handy park just a kilometer away with handy boulder "tables".

Our gourmet picnic lunch.

One happy Toad. He claims the rock is softer than his bike seat.

It was starting to spit rain and David thought we could get refuge in this church ruin. However, they had fenced it off for safety and because they were starting restoration. We did find a cafe to get us through the heaviest part then we headed to the closest train station for the ride back to Paris.

David's garage has even more bikes than ours!!!

Notice the big grins, a whole day riding the Paris country-side with a very interesting couple with many similar interests. It's too bad there is a whole ocean between our homes. In fact, we talked so long that it was almost 9 pm before we got back to the apartment.

Day 42 - Sunday - July 24
Tour de France Day!! This is the living room/bedroom/computer desk part of the apartment.

More wedding pictures, this time on one of the bridges across the Seine on our way to the Champs-Elysees.

There was no lack of souvenirs to be had.

We had plenty of time to wait......about 5 hours but we had our front row seat, especially important if you are only 5'3". By the time the riders showed up the crowd was 10 people deep behind us.

Jostein and Ingrid were our barricade neighbors. This father and daughter are from Norway and came to Paris just to see this stage of the Tour. She recently finished medical school and will be starting her residency in October.

Must have your bottle-opener handy at all times.

The Caravan showed up about 2 pm. It is a parade of all the sponsors of the Tour......one massive bit of advertising but fun nonetheless. 

These are just a few of the entries. It lasted more than an hour.

We were fairly close to the finish line and this handy very large screen. We watched the riders wind their way to Paris and they looked pretty casual while outside the city.

This is their entry onto the Champs-Elysees and this is when the racing really got serious.

The part that is missing is the sound, the cheers and the sound of that many bike wheels whirring really, REALLY fast.

That is Cadel Evans in his yellow jersey. The riders were a blur all 8 times they went by us. It did give us multiple opportunities to try to get a decent picture.

And it was Mark CavenDEESH at the end, defending his green jersey in fine style.

Cadel was very emotional when he reached the podium. Later we were told that his mentor had died recently.

What a great experience for us to be here in person.

We had only one day in Paris without rain and this was the perfect day for it.