Hi all,
I just want to live vicariously through your trip...Did anyone see the Tour de France come in to Paris Sunday? Where did you view it from? How were the crowds this year? Would you do it again?
Thank you in advance!
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It was amazing. My partner and I have been following the Tour on TV but to see the riders in the flesh was awesome. We took a spot on Rue Rivoli just past the 1km banner and when they rushed past I certainly felt quite emotional.
After they%26#39;d finished we walked up towards the Arc de Triomphe and waited for the teams to come past. We managed to get close to the barrier where they stopped for their team photograph. To be a few feet away from some of the world%26#39;s greatest riders just topped off out trip.
It was our first time to watch the Tour live, and will definately go back next year.
See you there!
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Our trip timing put us on the opposite side of France from the location of the tour route this year, but it was still so much fun to follow the tour on French television and read the exploits of each stage in the french sports daily, %26quot;L%26#39;Equipe,%26quot; even though I don%26#39;t really read French (there are volumes of statistics about each stage and great photos). Lots of coverage of Armstrong, of course. The tv commentators seemed strongly biased toward Any Schleck--maybe as a Luxembourer the French hav e adopted him as the closest thing they have to a cycling champion, since there are currently no Frenchmen to fill the bill.
My daughter and I tried to arrive at our hotel by 4:30pm so that we could watch the last hour or so of that day%26#39;s stage in our room. Most of the hotels also had it on in the lobby when we walked in.
But that%26#39;s nothing like seeing the real thing, which I was fortuate enough to experience a few years ago.
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Year two of watching on the Champs Elysees. This year we snagged a spot near the Rond Point on a single barrier section.
I brought my trusty stepladder which was ideal as underneath bag storage and height to get out of the way of all those wrists and digital cameras. Best part was the teams parade after the ceremony. Riders make a victory lap. Easier to catch faces without the racing going on. Bringing more water next year!
The tv footage really was amazing. What a lovely city Paris is...
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We drove out to the D21 -- the road that the Tour came down on the way to Paris after they left Monterau-Fault-Yonne.
It was all over in a flash, but we got awesome photos of Lance and Alberto, plus a lot of riders we just haven%26#39;t had time to identify yet.
We were out in the countryside, so the crowds were small, and I could have touched Franco Pelizotti as he rode past...so I got great pix of him, too!
I%26#39;ll do it again next year for sure. It was a blast to see all the sponsor vehicles and collect all the swag they toss out before the race comes through.
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I just went to look at our blog to see when we went to watch the Tour arrive on the Champs-Elysées and was shocked to see that is was in 2004.
You can see some photos and read about how we managed to get a place on the barriers on the Champs-Elysées on our blog. It was a long day, but it was worth it, and we will probably do it again. It was a real thrill to see the Tour finish their last laps in Paris.
http://tinyurl.com/mh3uys
This year we were lazy. We stayed home and watched it on TV, and we found it amusing that we could hear the helicopters overhead when they were showing the live shots of the Bastille on TV (We live at the Bastille.)
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Thanks to all of you. We were there last year and my husband would have loved to see Lance this year. Nice to hear your experiences.
It is such a fun day and I agree that it is so much better seeing it in person after watching on TV over the years. It was fun watching on the TV this year, though, as you get a better perspective after seeing it live. We kept saying %26quot;We saw that%26quot; and %26quot;We were watching from there last year%26quot; etc.
We are hoping to see it again (maybe next year???) and are hopeful we will be able to see a stage or two before they arrive in Paris.
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