Tour De France

Being that it is that time of year again, when Birding ceases and I have not quite got into Mothing yet, another passion ignites itself for the first three weeks of July and that is the Le Tour de France.  This year of course was more special than usual with Bradley Wiggins in the yellow jersey and winning the overall title.

Anyway, myself and my Birders Wife in March time decided to take the plunge and ignore the expense and book ourselves onto the Eurostar to be in Paris for the final weekend of the Tour (little did we know at that time how big the Tour would be this year for the Brits).

So, we made our way down to London mid morning last Saturday, taking in the scenery along the Chiltern Line while clocking Buzzards, Kestrels and Red Kites along the way.  We had a mishap on the journey down as my Birders Wife left her coat on the station and this ate into valuable time the other end in the search for a replacement.  However, we safely managed to negotiate our way through check-in and passport control and soon found ourselves in cattle class with a troupe of French brats (I mean children).  Fortunately, they kept us amused with their antics for some of the journey and it was not long before we pulled into the graffiti laden outskirts of Paris (and I thought London was bad!!).  Our hotel was not that far away and after a pleasant dinner, we had a stroll in Monceau Parc where I managed to find Raven, Carrion Crows, two Grey Herons, House Sparrows, Starlings, Blackbird and a Wren, the air above screamed with the sound of Swifts.

After a fitful nights sleep, being in a strange bed in a strange city, we were up and about early the following day and soon found ourselves on the Champs Elysees where scaffolding etc was being erected ready for the days racing.  Every other passerby seemed to be British with some wearing false sideburns in honour of Bradley.  As we had hours to wait for the race, we walked over to the Eiffel Tower and mingled with the crowds looking upwards at the biggest meccano set in the world.  A pleasant snack lunch set us back over 10 euros and it was not long before we were viewing the Tour advertising caravan moving along the banks of the Seine.  We then found ourselves a shaded spot and waited a further 90 minutes for the Peloton to arrive and then zip past at an unhealthy rate of knots.

Although we knew that the Champs Elysees would be absolutely crammed packed with people, we then made our way over there and grabbed a spot about 30 people back from the front and watched the race on the large TV screens provided.  It was nail biting stuff but amazing to see Bradley win the Tour and Mark Cavendish take his fourth consecutive win of the final stage.  Although we had not been able to see the race that well, as a bonus we then found that the spot we had chosen was an ideal position to view the awards ceremony and we cheered along with the other thousands of Brits as Mark Cavendish  and then Bradley Wiggins took to the podium to be awarded their trophies. A great day for british cycling and hopefully we will have a repeat performance next year but that time for Froome who worked so hard for Bradley on this tour.

The following day besides myself mourning that the Tour was over for another year, we took a whirl wind tour of Paris clocking up all the sights (Monmartre, Sacre Couer, Notre Dame and the Louvre).