Paris - Tour de France

Wiggins. Froome. Nibali.

We watched the prestigious cycling race’s last stage on Sunday, along with about a million other people.  The portion we watched was Stage 20, from Rombouillet to Paris.  It ends along the Champs-Élysées, where the riders do a few loops before finishing. 

The spot we found for watching the race was across from Tuileries Garden on the river, at the bottom of the "loop", which worked out great since the riders had to slow down a bit on the curve to go down through the tunnel.  We’ve been watching the Tour since the early 2000’s and admire the athletes’ endurance – it was such great fun to actually see it live!  Although it was a complete cluster and we had to camp out a few hours early, it was worth it.  A few hours before the riders arrive, there's a parade of sponsors (it was somewhat random, with sponsors like Bic pens, meat, laundry detergent, bread….but they played loud music, honked a lot, yelled to the crowd French, and had young women strapped-in on the cars/floats (for safety) who were dancing away, like it was the best time of their lives!)  It was crazy and loud and funny.

Here come the riders, and we spotted the winner, Wiggins (in yellow)!

After a few laps, we started walking down toward the Champs-Élysées and right in front of us a rider got a punctured tire -- horrible for him, but exciting for us.  He was down a bit, but was able to pull himself back to the main pack.

Viva le Tour!  We had such a fabulous time.