Walking through the Luxemburg Gardens was just beautiful and going to a real French market is an experience. We can still smell the fresh strawberries.
Our highlight was to attend the ‘Le Tour de France’ on our last full day in Paris. We were right along a street near the Concorde for two and half hours waiting. Luckily, we picked the shady side of the street. The ambulances were called a few times for what appeared to be for ‘heat stroke’ victims.
There was a big parade of sponsors before the cyclists come through. It was a different type of parade compared to the U.S. and rather surreal. A sponsor of Le Tour de France would have cars and trucks blaring out music, someone shouting on a microphone and girls dancing. Plenty of decorative floats too.
For two and a half hours we heard nothing but French and had no clue on what was being said. Then, the big R.V.’s come through with the cyclist’s sponsors elaborately painted on each R.V.. The R.V. of Lance Armstrong’s Discovery Team was missing though–but, I still wear his yellow band.
The last vehicles to come through were the team cars and carrying the crew and extra bicycles.
Then, the moment of truth, the race! They went by so fast; they were gone in ten seconds! Here we waited so patiently, elbow to elbow and it was over in ten seconds!
No one was leaving. I asked the security guard if they came by again. He could not speak English, but made a reference on his hands counting his fingers indicating that the cyclists circled 7 more times. Many of the cyclists were no more than ten feet from us. The experience of watching ‘Le Tour de France’ will stay with Kathie and me for a life-time.
