Sunday (07/25) was the final day of our “holiday” and what a trip it has been! We left Libourne early this morning via train and made our way back to Paris. So nice to see you again! We arrived at our hotel shortly after 11:00am to drop off our bags, then walked just a couple of blocks to check out the scene at the Champs-Elysees. I was insistent on having an unobstructed view of the action to come, so we had to try out a few spots to ensure that I was at the front of the barricade. Even if I was one person deep at that point, I would not have been able to see anything given how vertically challenged I am.
We finally settled on a spot shortly before noon, with the realization that we would not be able to see the sprint finish or the podium since we didn’t spring the extra cash for the primo grandstand seating. I quite mistakenly had the wrong impression that the riders would be coming through around 2:30pm based on the info sheet I read last night. Oh, how wrong I was! The caravan was actually the one to arrive at that time. Compared to the other two times that we’ve seen them, the caravan wasn’t throwing out promotional items this time. After the caravan finished, we expected the riders shortly thereafter. We had a long wait. They didn’t arrive until 4:45pm or so. That’s a long time waiting in the same spot! Thankfully, we had cloud cover and lower temps in Paris compared to the weather in the wine country yesterday.
The riders made 8 laps around the Champs-Elysees, with a breakaway forming in the initial laps that would eventually be caught of course. Go Cavendish! We were able to see the riders 16 times since they passed by us on each side of the street. However, the peloton was cruising, and it was difficult to identify individual riders since they were moving by so quickly. But, I did clearly see some of my faves at least once. As they passed us on their final lap on the way into the finish, it was a bit anti-climactic for us since we couldn’t see the exciting finish or the podium. But, we had heard that the teams all make one final (slow) lap together after the podium is completed.
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| Astana led the peloton out for the first lap on the Champs-Elysees |
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| Cavendish isn't worried about the finish yet |
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| All four jersey winners on the podium |
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| Team Radioshack wins team classification |
The problem was that it was about 6:30pm by the time the first team made their way back onto the Champs-Elysees. And, we had to be back at our hotel a few blocks away at 7:00pm to meet our tour group for the evening dinner cruise. So, it was a conflict moment. Do we stay to see all the teams past our designated meeting time or do we miss seeing the key riders/teams that we/I are most interested in? At 6:55ish, we finally decided that K would run back to the hotel to let them know that we would just meet them at the boat. We both expected that we wouldn’t be the only ones who had delayed going to the hotel in favor of watching the team’s final salute. Turns out we were though!
Nevertheless, I am so thankful that we did! It was such a special moment to see Lance riding his final lap on the Champs-Elysees with Johan Bruyneel and to see Frank Schleck riding in his street clothes with his team (on one of Andy’s bikes, no less) following a major injury that took him out of the Tour early on. This was the finish that I was looking for.
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| Team Radioshack |
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| Lance and Johan |
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| Frank Schleck |
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| Big George |
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| Nice bike, King of the Mountains |
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| Let's swap! |
We then high-tailed it over to the Seine to join our tour group for a dinner cruise. We made it just in time, and quickly started downing the quality champagne and wine to wind down from the adrenaline rush that we had going. And, of course, the views as the sun was going down were not to be missed. What a truly incredible trip we’ve had!
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| The American Group plus Mate |
To top things off, we are staying at a luxury hotel for our last night in Paris. It’s been such a wonderful, multi-layered experience over the past 2 weeks. We’ve enjoyed the company of our tour group, “The American Group plus Mate,” for the past few days. It’s hard to really sum up this trip. When we were making arrangements to plan and book this trip, I justified it to K by telling him that it was a once in a lifetime experience. However, on the other side of it, it was so good that it just might have to be repeated…
Au revoir Paris (until we meet again!)
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