Tour de France - Final Stage in Paris

On Sunday we took ourselves, along with 300,000 other Parisians, into the centre of town to witness the final Stage of the Tour de France.

After having cycled 3,500km over the last 3 or so weeks, the riders still find the time to compete on the final stage which is a 160km stage, involving 80km to get into Paris, followed by 8 laps of a 10km course around the streets of central Paris.

We dragged ourselves up out of bed early to join a big bunch of other Australians staking out a prime position on the side of the road about 500m from the finish line. We arrived at 10:30am, however the cyclists were not to arrive untill 4:30 or so. In true Australian tradition, we cracked open our first beer at around 11am, and proceeded to drink our way until the cyclists arrived, engaging in witty conversation with our new found Australian friends.

Our early arrival with sheer numbers and multitude of Australian flags hanging up along the fence however, did not perturb a few locals who arrived quite late to the festivities from wanting to fill even the tiniest piece of personal space between any of us. One particularly large gentleman who tried to use his ample stomach to wedge his way into our space, was greeted with scowls by a couple of other Australians and a small agrument ensued. It was quickly mediated by the local constabulary, who found in the favour of the Australians. (Owing only to the earlyness of our arrival.) This gentleman, despite this setback in losing round 1,and more notably his prime position on the fence that he felt was rightfully his, (due to the rotund nature of the aforementioned stomach) decided he would take up a spot right in the middle of our group, much to our annoyance. In order to combat this and hopefully cause as much grief to him as possible, loud conversations were had, in both English & French straight across this man with the hope he would feel uncomfortable enough to leave. Sure enough, with the persistance of 30mins of conversations going backward and forward across him, he packed up stumps and left. He however was not the only infiltrator to our little patch of Australia on Rue de Rivoli that afternoon, as we had a few other people trying to encroach on our little space of fence that we wished to defend with honour and dignity.

About 4:30 the cyclists arrived for their first of 8 laps and quickly a small group of 8 riders took the lead putting a 30sec gap on the main bunch. However, there was a sustained pace on the front of the bunch from Team Columbia who wanted their man Mark Cavendish to pick up his 6th stage victory of the Tour. The gap was slowly closing as each lap came through, and by the

last lap, Team Columbia had everything working great having already swollowed up the bunch of 8. As they came past us for the last time 500m out (in photo on the right) they had their man George Hincapie on the front with Aussie Mark Renshaw following in 2nd and their main man Mark Cavendish in 3rd. Right on his wheel though was green jersey holder Thor Hushvold who although was winning the green jersey did not have a stage victory to his name. Aussie Mark Renshaw lead out Cavendish beautifully with 250m to go and Cavendish won the stage easily with Renshaw coming in 2nd.

Overall winner of 'Le Tour' was Spain's Alberto Contador (pictured here in the Yellow Jersey)

After the festivities were over as far as the cycling was concerned, we retired with our big group of Aussies to the closest watering hole for a couple of quiet post Tour beverages.

(Thor Hushvold) - Green Jersey Winner

120th Birthday of Tour Eiffel

To round up the festivities of the 14th of July, Paris put on the mother of all parties in the Champs de Mars which was attended by an estimated 1 Million people. Ageing french rock star, Johnny Hallyday (aged 66) was the main attraction and by all accounts he put on a great show.

To cap off the day, there was a an amazing fireworks and lights show to celebrate the 120th birthday of the Eiffel Tower.

Bastille Day

On 'Bastille Day' (which it is only know as outside of France, or the '14th of July' as it is known here) the French military stage a mass procession down the Champs-Elysees to prove to the world that the French military still packs a punch. (and from all appearances it certainly does) A parade that is enthusiastically cheered on by patriotic French men and women.

So on the 14th of July we joined 700,000 other Parisians and headed on down to the Champs Elysees to take in the might and majesty of the French Army. It was pretty hot and we got there just before it began at 10:30, As such, we had a bit of a hard time trying to see things. We were fighting with 699,998 other people who happened to be there at the same time. Our desire to sleep in on a public holiday was punished by the gods of military parades, who were not smiling on us as they provided us with a spot at the rear of the crowd, straining our necks to see the parade.

Firstly, I must say, Americans do not have a monopoly over having fast flying jets leaving red white and blue stripes in the sky. The French are equally adept at it.

After a whole stack of jets and other exciting aircraft flew over it was time for the actual parade to begin. For the next hour and a half solid we were treated to all sorts of soldiers, lots of tanks and wonderful military toys. Don't let anyone tell you for one second that the French are not nationalistic or patriotic. Each and every military unit that graced its way down the cobblestones was met with a cheer and enthusiastic clapping of hands. Once the final tank had rumbled its way down the road and President Sarkozy and run his eye over all of the units (mercifly for him none were wearing headscarfs) there was a stirring rendition of "La Marseillaise" that rounded off proceedings beautifully at midday.

Tour de France Explained - Part 1

Howdy, well I know you have been up all night watching the Tour,

and have probably wondered who and what are all of the sponsors and everything. Well I will try to inform you here.

Lets start with the Jerseys -

Maillot Jeune (Yellow Jersey) awarded to the overall leader- Sponsored by LCL Banque, which is a large French Bank, originating in Lyon, back in the mid 1800's, and is now considered one of the 'Big

Three' pillars of French banking, along with BNP Paribas (who sponsor the French Open Tennis) and Societe Generale.

Maillot Verte (Green Jersey) awarded for sprinters points. Sponsored by PMU - Pari Mutuel Urbain, which is effectively the French version of the TAB. This is why it has a horse in its logo. A lot of pubs and bars have PMU much like in Australia, and there are also PMU shops, like there are TAB shops, were men spend a lot of their saturday afternoons.

Maillot a Pois Rouge (Polka Dot Jersey) awarded to the best mountain climber. Sponsored by Carrefour.

Carrefour are a humongous hypermarket chain in France and infact I have read that the Carrefour Group is second only to Wal-Mart in terms the worlds largest retail companies. Carrefour run numerous brands of supermarkets in France and have their own 'home brand' products marketed under the Carrefour label. If you go into an actual Carrefour Hypermarket, they are MASSIVE, its like a Bunnings, Harvey Norman, Myer, Rebel and Woolworths all rolled into one store.

Le Tour - Stage 4, Montpellier

Yesterday I hopped on a TGV train early in the morning from Paris, with great excitement for i was heading to Montpellier for the day to see stage 4 of 'Le Tour'. Stage 4, was designated as a team time trial stage. Starting in central Montpellier, it wound its way out of town towards the North West, around the local countryside and finally back into the South West of Montpellier. In total 39km.

Montepellier is 765km from Paris, (it was way down on the south coast) Mercifially the TGV is super, super fast, and the trip on the train was a mere 3hrs and 20 mins. When I booked my tickets for the TGV, it was only an extra 4 euros to travel first class, so I thought bugger it, why the hell not and I went down there in style.

Lets have a quick look at what my extra 4 euro got me on this journey. Apart from the extra legroom and slightly further reclining seat than 2nd class, my four euros bought me a powerpoint for the entire journey. Thats it. So had I had wanted to plug in my waffle iron and make waffles for my fellow passengers, I had the ability to do so. Sucked in to all those plebs in 2nd class without their waffles.

After my early start in Paris, I arrived in Montpellier just before lunch time, and with maps in hand, proceeded to start my walk towards where I hoped I would find the finish line for Stage 4 of 'Le Tour'. Sure enough about 5 km from the centre of the city, I found myself the finish line, it was still a little early, so there were a lot of people milling around, and generally setting everything up. I was looking out for Phil Ligett, but sadly could not find him anywhere. I could easily have taken up a position right on the finish line if I so desired, but alas, I wanted a true, rustique experience of 'Le Tour', so I proceeded to walk back up the route of the track, in the hope to get outside the city limits and into the local countryside.

I walked down to the 1km to go sign, which was still in the city, so I kept walking, about another 500m up the road, I could tell I was starting to get to the outskirts of town, as the houses were starting to thin out. A short walk up the hill was the 2km to go sign, and now I was really out of town. I wandered down the other side of the hill and around the corner and took up a position on the side of the road next to a paddock, where there were already quite a few locals milling on the shady side of the road (silly me was all by myself on the sunny side of the road) with keen anticipation of the days events to come.

I sat around for about and hour and slowly the crowd began to build. At about 1:30 there was a lot of noise coming from further down the road, and all of a sudden all the kids (and everyone else) who was sensibly sitting in the shade came running to the road. Kids were shouting to their parents "Regarde, Regarde!!" (look, look) with an excited glint in their eyes as though Santa Claus was coming. You know what, that didn't end up being too far from the truth.

Off in the distance around the corner I saw what looked like a big yellow lion driving up the hill, this was quickly followed by a giant 4 pack of bottled water also driving up the hill. Not far after that, a massive tyre came up the hill, which was followed by a guy driving a giant cup of coffee. For the next hour solid, I was bombarded by advertising, in a kind of bizzare, Gay Mardi Gras style float system, as advertiser after advertiser came driving past in ever more elaborate advertising 'floats'. Each seemingly trying to outdo each other in grandness and strangness.

This is what is called 'Le Caravane'. Every official sponsor of 'Le Tour' plus all of the major sponsors of the 20 teams, make up all of these elaborate floats, that go around about a half an hour before the cyclists go through on the entire route of 'Le Tour'.

For kids, its like christmas time, as they are throwing out from their floats, all sorts of advertising goodies, that the kids fight over, like hats, key rings, lollies, coffee and there was even one float that was for a washing detergent that was throwing out free samples of their product. I managed to score myself some choice goodies. I even copped a packet of chips right in the chest having been thrown from one of the floats at a distance of about 1 meter.

Anyway once 'Le Caravane' had finished bombarding me with its commercial delights, it was time for the serious cycling to begin. Because I had taken up a spot a bit outside town, it was full of locals and by 2:30 the crowd and begun to swell along the road.

There appears to be quite an important ettiquite involved as the riders approach, and any of you who have watched the race on tv will see this occuring. Basically, everyone just stands around on the road waiting (or the sensible people sit in the shade off the road) Then about 30 seconds before a group of riders come through, an escort of two police motorcycles will come through to clear people off the road. Once the police cycles have gone through, people walk back onto the road to stand where they were prior to the police bikes coming through. For those sitting off to the side in the shade, the police bikes going through is their sign to get up and head over to the road in anticipation of the cyclists. So everyone stands on the road to watch the cyclists come towards them, then about 5 second before the cyclists come past you, you just casually step off to the side of the road.

Where I was standing on the side of the road, the cyclists were coming to my side of the road, in order to take a bend just up the road and as such it suprised me how close I actually was to most of the riders. Some of them rolled on by, I estimate no more than 1ft from my feet. I could have stuck my arm out and coathangered anyone I wanted. It suprises me that there are not more incidents with spectators.

I managed to cheer on all of the Aussies as they went past, and generally everyone else as well. There was a pretty good atmosphere amongst the spectators and it was a fun ol day.

All in all I must say it was a much better way to see the action, out with the locals, in a spot on the road where there were no barricades. However for the last group, I did head up the road to the 2km to go sign, to start my long walk back in to town a bit earlier. As such, when Lance Armstrong and Team Astana went past, I managed to get myself on TV! So there is another one to chalk up.

(Here is the video below from the official Tour Coverage, see if you can spot me on the left just after the 2km sign)

Things Parisians do well - Transport

Hi Aussies,

Sucked in to how crap your local transport is. Over here, transport is awesome. I sat at a metro station for 10 mins, on Wednesday afternoon, and watched 10 trains arrive in 10 mins, with ruthless French efficency. Certainly a lot better than Cityrail could ever manage thats for sure.

Apart from the metro, there are two things transport wise that the French do much better than anything else. Motorcycles, and Bicycles.

Here in Paris, most people ride scooters and motorbikes, so much more so than anywhere else I have ever been. As can be seen in these pics.



And the beauty is, if you have a scooter, you can ride it wherever you want, even on the footpath, and pretty much park it where ever the hell you want also.




The best thing that the local govt in Paris have brought in is a 'free' bicycle scheme called the 'Velibs' Here is the entry from wikipedia about Velibs

Vélib’ (French: vélo libre or vélo liberté, English: free bicycle or bicycle freedom) is a public bicycle rental programme in Paris, France. The initiative was pushed by Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë from the French Socialist Party. The system was launched on 15 July 2007, following Lyon's Vélo'v success. Ten thousand bicycles were introduced to the city with 750 automated rental stations each with fifteen or more bikes/spaces. This number has since grown to 20,000 bicycles and 1,450 stations, roughly one station every 300 metres throughout the city centre, making Vélib’ the largest system of its kind in the world.

Seriously the Velibs are AWESOME! you just swipe your little card in the terminal and a bike is yours, and its free for the first 1/2 and hour, and then 1 euro for each 1/2 an hour after that. As you can read from above, the velib stations are absolutely everywhere throughout metro Paris, and you just grab a bike, ride where you want and put it in the station where you arrive.

Here is a pic of a velib terminal


Oh yeah, and the other thing is that no one wears a helmet when riding in Paris either. Its seriously not cool at all. (or not safe for that matter)