It's a bike race, too?

I like to watch the Tour de France each year. For me, it's less about the cycling and more about the scenery. During the several hours of television coverage each day of the race, the helicopters following the action take beautiful aerial pictures of the countryside, towns, and castles along the race route.

The Eiffel Tower on the Seine. Just so you know it's Paris.

On the last day of the race, the cyclists ride almost ceremonially into Paris (there is a serious sprint near the end, but it usually does not alter who the winners will be) and the sky shots of the city are great. Here are a few that I took by pointing the camera at the television screen (there are some ground shots, too).

Le Grand Palais. Oh, it says that on the screen. Duh.

The Tuileries garden and the Louvre behind it (at top). The big building across the river is the Orsay Museum.

The Luxor obelisk on the Place de la Concorde. Nice camera work, guys!

The Arc de Triomphe on the Avenue des Champs Elysées.

Mark Cavendish wins the stage, but not the race.

Le Tour part four: les coureurs

Finally, the bikes came by. And then it was over. Seriously, they go by so fast that you wonder what all the fuss was about. There's not even time to spot your favorite racer. Unless you know he's at the head of the pack. But first, you hear, then see, the helicopters.

The helicopter that provides aerial images of le peloton (the pack) throughout the race.

The sound of that many bikes racing by is memorable. It was a very subtle, but strong, whoooosh over a base of whirrrrr. Got it? There are over one-hundred fifty cyclists in the pack. I'm underestimating because I think there were over one-hundred ninety that started out.

The leaders of the pack on Friday. I think there were four.

Four racers were out in front by about five minutes. They're called la tête de la course (the head of the race) and are effectively the stage leaders at that particular point in the race. They have their own escort and television cameras because, well, they're out in front.

And here they come!

The actual leader of the race isn't necessarily out in front. It's very complicated and I don't rightly understand it, so I won't attempt to explain it here. But the leader wears le maillot jaune (the yellow jersey) and is often found somewhere in the larger pack. But of course, he's nowhere to be seen in my pictures.

And there they go! It's over in a flash.

Le Tour part three: le crap

Like I said, while the caravane passes, the race sponsors throw little trinkets, samples, and junk to the people along the roads. We raked it in. In fact, we were in competition with some little kids for the junk, er, crap, er, souvenirs, that were thrown our way.

Tour de France snack party! This is a package of fried cheese snacks.

So you don't think we were taking candy from the mouths of babes, I did toss some of what we got toward the kids. Just some. These events tend to make one competitive. Even against little French kids.

A French guy with a noise maker in his pocket. We got one, too. You shake it and it makes noise. Shake your booty.

We gave most of our crap to our friend H. since we were at her house. Just tribute. And she can take it back to her school for educational purposes. Right? I learned a new word when a knotted cloth came our way. It looked like a scarf, but H. said it was a do-rag. Look it up.

Our friend H. with her orange do-rag and several hats on top. Don't tell her I posted this. She'll hate me. That's our gendarme in the back.

It's amazing how otherwise sane adults (yes, I count myself among them) can turn into raving maniacs (I count myself among them, too) when free stuff is being thrown at them. I came away with a key chain that somehow made its way into my pocket. I don't know how that happened.

My key chain. Cofidis is one of the teams in the race. Ken pointed out that the round thing is a token for your supermarket caddy, which is why it's on a detachable hook. Very handy!

But it's my crap now.

Le Tour part two: la caravane

After the road closes to traffic, the police and Tour officials do sweeps to ensure that everyone is off the road and that the way is clear for the race. A couple of hours before the bicyclists arrive, a parade of vehicles goes by. At first they are very official looking and police related.

The first of the official and police vehicles to come by us.

As we were waiting, I was reminded of the scene in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" where people set up along side a road waiting for the space ships to go zooming by. That was us. And zoom by they did. When the caravane started, we were treated to such a sight. Amazing, cartoony, funny, and weird is how I'd describe it.

LCL is a bank. This is their contingent.

Then come the event sponsors. As each sponsor passed, we'd hear announcements and advertising from their loud speakers. The people working in the caravane threw stuff to the spectators on the side of the road. We had quite a little collection of key chains, hats, magnets, and pouches of cookies and other food products when it was all over. We called it "crap." We wanted them to throw crap at us. And they did.

More of the LCL parade. Banks have a lot of money to spend on this stuff.

Lest you get the wrong idea, this was not a slow parade. These vehicles were moving by us very fast, probably at about 40mph. There was a gendarme stationed at the end of the road we were on to keep us from venturing out into the traffic. I was amazed at how fast they passed by. That's why many of these photos have some blur in them. Speed.

Mickey Mouse!

In between the sponsors there were often more official looking cars or motorcycles and some vehicles with the television logos on them. We couldn't figure out what their purpose might be other than having fun. Everybody waved. I'll stop writing now and let you see what we saw. As usual, click on any of the pictures to see them bigger.

Several cars advertising laundry detergent. Okay...

The car manufacturer Skoda is a huge sponsor of the Tour de France.

This company makes sweet syrups that you add to bubbly water for a refreshing drink.

I don't remember what the ducks were advertising... I found out: a newspaper called Aujourd'hui en France (Today in France).

This rooster is crowing for a brand of cookie.

Vittel, the bottled water people, had several of these strange things going by.

After the caravane had finished, we still had more than an hour to wait for the cyclists. Some of us walked back up to the house for a bathroom break and to get some more wine and snacks for the big show.

Le Tour part one: le set-up

Last Friday, the Tour de France bicycle race came perilously close to us. So close, in fact, that it ran right by the summer house of some American friends of ours. They happened to be here, so we planned a day at their place to eat, drink, and watch the spectacle.

Our little group set up at the end of the driveway. Left to right: H, J, K, Callie and Ken, and A.

H & A's house is in the middle of some fields where wheat, barley, sunflowers, or colza is grown, depending on the year. This year I think it was barley. The grain was recently harvested, leaving fields of stubble all around. The house is about a quarter mile (maybe less) down a dirt road from the paved road where the Tour would be going by.

A glimpse of our friends' house next to the field of freshly harvested barley.

We got there early because the road itself closed at noon. We spent a couple of hours eating and drinking before gathering up our lawn chairs and heading down to watch the Tour. Ken and I made Greek-style chicken wings, some carrot sticks with blue cheese dressing, and took along some wine. Other friends, K & J, brought pressed sandwiches on baguettes with grilled garden vegetables and meats along with a blueberry and peach crumble and freshly picked Sologne blueberries. We enjoyed it all!

This is a view of the (harvested) barley field from where we were sitting at the side of the road.

After the meal we took our folding chairs and headed down to the end of the driveway and set ourselves up to watch the Tour. First up was what they call the caravane, a parade of Tour sponsors that drives by tossing goodies to people on the side of the road.