After years of looking for the right partner (and learning lots about what isn’t the right partner), I finally found the one and found myself on the summer trip of a lifetime with her to France for our honeymoon. We rented a Citroen in which to bounce around the French countryside and catch a couple of Tour stages, but on this day, just as we were about to take a turn at a small French village, we encountered a road closure and discovered that our planned route was also the Tour’s for Stage 7.
 |
| A sleepy French town awaiting the ariival. |
We wandered around the town a little and got to see how the
locals handle it when the Tour comes to their town. When the caravan came through, some of the
vehicles would stop and sell touristy knick knacks, which meant that I finally
achieved my lifelong goal of getting a polka dot hat and t-shirt.
 |
| Pousuivants. |
This was a flat stage, so the breakaway came through and was
gone in no time flat.
 |
| Peloton |
And then the Team Sky led peloton took only slightly longer
to buzz by in a whir of wind and wheels.
 |
| Small Pyreneean Town. |
Once the race had passed and the traffic cleared, we jumped back
in the Citroen to make our rendezvous with our bike rental in the
Pyrenees. We drove on the opposite side
of the river valley as the race, and encountered some very small roads that
were only slightly wider than the Citroen, before crossing the bridge and waiting
for the race to pass again.
