Tour De France

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On my second or third day in France, i can't remember now, I set off to watch the Tour de France, something I had first watched as a kinder with my mother many years ago. It was rather random to have yet another childhood memory collide with reality and as I was recently arrived it was all rather surreal.

Unfortunately I left my camera at the apartment I was staying at and the photos I took on my mobile seem to be undownloadable - although hopefully I will suss that one out in the near future.

While in Lisieux I hung out with some Americans I had met on the train there from Paris and walked up and down the course the riders were to take through the town. Eventually I settled on a spot where I maximised my intake of the copious amounts of freebies being thrown off promotional vehicles left, right and center.

That strategy worked, although with my intake consisting of washing powder, hats, coffee powder and more hats, I'm not sure my ingenuity was fairly rewarded.

After 5 or so hours of waiting, the plethora of cars that paves the way for the cyclists penetrated Lisieux and soon enough the cyclists had flown past me, with there having been time enough to take two badly timed photos of a blur and some concrete. And that was that as far as the cycling went, 5 hours and a thunder storm for 20 seconds of blur, a couple of hats, some washing powder and a sachet of coffee.

Perhaps the best part of watching the finish of the 226.5km Dinan to Lisieux stage was the aftermath. I got a close up view of the presentation of about 5 different coloured shirts to various cyclists and got to see the eventual winner from about 2 metres.

Lisieux is a beautiful place and was to be my first road trip and taste of the amazing and beautifuly vaired country that France is...

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