The Tour de France

The kids and I saw the Tour de France today - it was so typically European. It was obviously well planned but refreshingly lax in its execution. Around 10:00 this morning, they blocked off the street to cars. There were, though, plenty of local bikes, mopeds, and pedestrians using the street, right up to the instant the Tour de France cyclists sped by.

There was no real beginning to the event on our street. Around 10:30, some funny-looking cars began to drive past, throwing out candy, key chains, pens, etc. They were advertising cars, with writing all over them and displays attached to their hood. Often girls were sitting on top waving. This internationally famous race had the advertising flavor of a small town parade or a minor league baseball game. They were advertising candy, watches, banks, sporting goods - all kinds of stuff.

This went on sporadically for around 45 minutes. People were slowly coming out and standing along the street. Some older folks brought out kitchen chairs to sit on. Minutes would pass where nothing would go by - just the local bikes, and pedestrians. The advertising cars were now mixed with official "Tour de France" cars. There were literally dozens of these.

Let me say that the Tour de France easily has twice as many cars as bikes in the race - and there are 180 cyclists! That doesn't even count all of the motorcycles that came rolling by.

I cannot imagine what all those official tour cars were for! Some were official judges, some were route officers, there were also medical cars - but there were dozens more! The press cars were separate, and every newspaper, magazine and TV station seemed to have their own car. There were a few police cars and motorcycles too.

Around 11:45, the street was rather full, but not at all crowded. Kids were playing and adults were standing around talking. There were guys in blue uniforms with walkie-talkies every block or so. Someone asked to uniformed guy near me when the bikes were coming and he said that all he knew was that they were supposed to come by around 11:30. No one worries much about time here.

I looked around and said to myself that this event would never happen this way in the states. In the states, the streets would be roped off. There wouldn't be kids constantly running across the street. There wouldn't be local bike traffic darting between the 'official Tour' cars. And no one would be allowed to crowd out into the street to see the bikes coming.

There would also be ten times more cops - carrying guns and wearing sunglasses. They would be busy keeping everyone back off the street and they'd be busting all the folks standing around drinking a beer.

Anyway, around 12:10, there was another quick barrage of cars and the mass of bikes came speeding by. Everyone clapped and cheered. A helicopter was following them overhead. All the bikes were past in less than a minute!

Then came more cars and vans. Most of these were carrying spare wheels and bikes on top. There was at least one station wagon for each of the 20 teams in the race. Everyone cheered for the station wagons too - they were still in the mood.

The crowd didn't break up very quickly. I went into the local fish shop to buy something for lunch, and when I came out, there were still lots of people standing around and talking - and there were still a couple 'official tour' cars going by!

The kids and I walked back to the house for lunch, we had had a good time.

Lynn

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The Crowd at 11:15 and the press cars

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The 'Official' Cars

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The Bikes!

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Spare Parts cars came after the cyclists