The real purpose of the trip to France was to watch Le Tour de France, but we just couldn’t pass up the chance of a few days in Paris. We caught the Eurostar across the Channel (highly recommended) and headed to the Latin Quarter where our hotel was. We then proceeded to walk our legs off for the next few days. Over three days we visited Notre Dam, the Louvre (amazing, but super busy), the Luxembourg Gardens and palace (where the French Senate now sites), the Sacré-Cœur (with a giant skateboard ramp set up for some random Red Bull sponsored stunt), the Eiffel Tower and of course the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe. We also just really enjoyed just wandering around and taking in the atmosphere.
I wouldn’t do our trip to Paris justice without mentioning the food – a major highlight and topic of conversation and planning. We devoured numerous croissants, pain au chocolates, baguettes, other yummy pastries, macaroons (from the famous Laduree on the Champs Elysees – check out the website at www.laduree.fr), three course French meals, three course African meals, delicious Moroccan tagines and I really got into the Pastis and Luke the Pelforths. Even with all the walking, I left Paris with an extra kilo, but it was totally worth it (except for a minor stress that I might not fit into the dress I bought for the wedding!!).
After Paris we got super saver deals (1.50 euro each) to Nantes on the TVG (French bullet train), hired a car and staked out a bit of footpath to watch the Tour. We managed to catch some of each of the first three stages. The first stage stakeout was at the 1 km to go mark and while we didn’t recognise anyone in the first pack to wiz by (although Cadel was there), we did manage to recognise Stuart O’Grady and the Schleck brothers, who were taking it at a slightly more leisurely pace (if only they knew what was to come). The second stage was the team time trial and we got a great spot near the start, from which we could also see a downhill section near the finish. We were so close to the action that the HTC team nearly ran over my foot (that Cav!!). For the third stage, we staked out a spot right near the start so we could see the riders taking it slowly before the official start of racing.
It was so much fun being at the Tour and taking in the atmosphere – and of course our recollections are all the more fond for Cadel’s eventual victory. The thing that really struck us, and that you don’t get a feel for on telly, is the sheer scale of the overall operation. The number of team cars, team buses, official cars, medical support cars, press cars, TV motorbikes, neutral service vehicles, gendarmes and sponsors is unbelievable. We were guessing for every one cyclist (and there are 200 of them to start) there must be at least 10 hangers on (and probably a lot more). We were driving down the highway on the way to stage three and got caught up in the Katusha team bus-car-etc convoy, which was quite exciting. This was until we noticed we also had 100+ gendarmes on our tail, which was somewhat less exciting since Luke was still a bit unsteady on the wrong side of the road!!
Our last night in France provided a real highlight. We were staying in Nantes (a university town that our hotel guy in Paris had questioned the need to visit) prior to a 6 am flight to Turkey. We’d had a quick look on the LP website for a dinner recommendation and decided on the Creperie Heb-Ken. After a small drama finding it, we found the restaurant full of French students and proceeded to have the most delicious galettes (savoury crepes) and crepes (apple and chocolate was the winner) we had ever tasted. It is a must visit for anyone thinking of going to Nantes!
So for France the highlights were the food (yum) and le Tour. And the best thing about the Tour was that the fun continued in our next destination – Turkey (see Part 3). Photos for France are on flikr. There are, of course, a lot more from the Tour and also video – I will post this sometime soon (will have to wait ‘til August when my flikr upload limit is reset).
Click here for France photos
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