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Well, here I am in France. I have been here for over three weeks now and I have not written yet. My intention is to spend this next school year studying in France. I will also be traveling a lot while I am here so be prepared to see a lot about Europe in my posts for the next year. Perhaps there will be some reviews of great European films and books, don’t be surprised when my English starts to go down the hole though!

So I went to see the cyclists from Le Tour de France today as they arrived at the Champs-élysee day. It was a defiantly sight to see. I arrived at about 11:00 in the afternoon, under the impression that the bicyclists would be arriving in Paris at about 2:30. So I sat around waiting until 2:30 and that is when the parade started. It was basically an overly enthusiastic bunch of funked out sponsor cars speeding down the road. Most of the cars were enclosed in mesh and wire shapes that were painted in relation to the specific sponsors. It was a short parade and there was no candy or Le Tour de France merchandise to be had. There was one gaggle of ice cream cone cars and buff men posing as firemen on top of the cones that sprayed down the crowd with their hoses, which was much welcome on the hot and steamy day that we were experiencing. After the parade was finished I still ended up waiting around for two more hours for the pack to show up.

When they finally road onto the Champs the roaring of the crowd, that worked it’s way up the street as every one jumped to their feet from the asphalt, quickly reached my ears.
First the policemen made a loud impression as they whizzed by the crowd with their sirens blaring, then a few team cars, then the camera vans, and then. . . . .there was a blur of color (I’m pretty sure I saw yellow in there some where) as the pack passed by my eyes in less then five seconds. Wow! They were going fast. They passed by once, and I waited a few minutes, and then they passed by again on the other side of the street, and then again, this probably went on for about five rounds before I decided I had seen what I came to see. I am happy to be able to say that I was there and I witnessed first hand how fast those bikers can really take it. If I get another chance though, I will experience Le Tour the right way, while following the bikers around the country and watched them blur on by at least a handful of times on different days. At least then I could begin to grasp the distance they travel and not just the speed at which they travel.