I've never been as jet lagged as I am today. I guess in the 12 days we were over in France, my body really got on French time. That, combined with staying awake for about 22 straight hours on the flights home, then getting about 4 hours sleep before I popped up at 2:00am the morning (it was 10:00am Paris time) has me all messed up!
Anyway, I know I've got a lot more France posts to write, but they're going to have to wait for tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
Signs
One thing that Nathan and I have noticed is that someone in France loves signs. It may be the people, the government, the road builders, or someone else, but there are so many signs in France it is almost unbelievable. I'm not talking about billboards or other advertisements along the road, but rather the road signs that tell you what you need to do or not do. These things are everywhere!
For example, they have an "end of" sign to match every "start of" sign. For instance, every town has a sign that says the name of the town when you enter it. That's a good idea, but then there is a corresponding end of the town sign when you are leaving. This has the town name with a big red stripe through it. Okay, this may make sense so you know you are out of the town. But they do that for everything, including bridges, tunnels, rest areas, and so forth. For instance, if you get off at a rest area, you get a sign to tell you that you are no longer on the highway or you come out of a tunnel and there is a sign you are no longer in the tunnel. Some seem reasonable, but some just seem ridiculous.
They also do something interesting on the exit from the highway. The speed limit on the autoroutes (the biggest highways in France) is 130 km/h. When you take an exit, they don't just tell you that the speed limit on the exit is 50 km/h, the instead "walk you down" from 130 to 50 in 20 km/h increments. Therefore, you'll see a 110 speed limit sign, then a 90, then a 70, and finally a 50. It's very wierd.
I've already talked about how the signs direct you from town to town. Sometimes they have so many towns to direct you to, they need to split it up onto more than one sign. We saw this a few times on the way to Paris.
They even have some signs ready to go on the off chance that a car or truck breaks down in the left lane on the highway. I guess if this happens, you need to get out of your car or truck and go flip this sign out so people know the road in front of them is blocked. I guess this is a good thing to know, but does this sort of thing happen enough to warrant such a sign? (Perhaps I have the purpose for these signs wrong and actually they get used all the time and are super important.)
Anyway, French drivers must be the best informed drivers anywhere in the world if the number of signs is any indication!
For example, they have an "end of" sign to match every "start of" sign. For instance, every town has a sign that says the name of the town when you enter it. That's a good idea, but then there is a corresponding end of the town sign when you are leaving. This has the town name with a big red stripe through it. Okay, this may make sense so you know you are out of the town. But they do that for everything, including bridges, tunnels, rest areas, and so forth. For instance, if you get off at a rest area, you get a sign to tell you that you are no longer on the highway or you come out of a tunnel and there is a sign you are no longer in the tunnel. Some seem reasonable, but some just seem ridiculous.
They also do something interesting on the exit from the highway. The speed limit on the autoroutes (the biggest highways in France) is 130 km/h. When you take an exit, they don't just tell you that the speed limit on the exit is 50 km/h, the instead "walk you down" from 130 to 50 in 20 km/h increments. Therefore, you'll see a 110 speed limit sign, then a 90, then a 70, and finally a 50. It's very wierd.
I've already talked about how the signs direct you from town to town. Sometimes they have so many towns to direct you to, they need to split it up onto more than one sign. We saw this a few times on the way to Paris.
They even have some signs ready to go on the off chance that a car or truck breaks down in the left lane on the highway. I guess if this happens, you need to get out of your car or truck and go flip this sign out so people know the road in front of them is blocked. I guess this is a good thing to know, but does this sort of thing happen enough to warrant such a sign? (Perhaps I have the purpose for these signs wrong and actually they get used all the time and are super important.)
Anyway, French drivers must be the best informed drivers anywhere in the world if the number of signs is any indication!
Last day in Paris
As you've no doubt noticed, I'm about 3 days behind in posting. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to catch up this morning as it's our last day in Paris. We plan to do the Eiffel Tower, the Museum of the Middle Ages and the Arc de Triomphe.
Anyway, I'll see if I can get a post in tonight. Otherwise, I'll have to write some posts up on the flight home and get them up on Wednesday.
Au revoir!
Anyway, I'll see if I can get a post in tonight. Otherwise, I'll have to write some posts up on the flight home and get them up on Wednesday.
Au revoir!
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Stage 17 and the long drive to Paris
On Wednesday night, we decided our plan for Thursday:
Anyway, we got up around around 9:00, ate our breakfast at the apartment, then headed out to see what was up. We found all the team busses lined up along the Allee d'Etigny, the main street in Luchon. We took a bunch of photos (see my previous post) and basically hung out in front of the RSNT bus. In fact, one of the representatives from Radio Shack gave us a copy of the team's magazine while we were there which was pretty cool.
This would be a good time to show a picture of the little passage we went through about 50 times a day in Luchon:
This little passage went from our street to the main street of Luchon, and saved us a lot of time getting where we needed to go in town. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for that little passageway!
Anyway, back to the point of this post. As before, the riders started making their appearances, with RSNT and Team Sky seeming to be the last to pop out of their busses. Not sure that's something deliberate or what, but it seemed to happen every day.
There was one funny thing we witnessed while waiting to see the riders. A German lady was standing behind the barricade with the rest of us. Nothing odd there. Then she stood on a bench on the side of the road to get a better view. Still pretty reasonable. Then, she decided she could rest her feet by climbing over the barricade and then sititng on top of it. A few minutes later, since she was basically inside the barricade anyway, she decided to just stand on the inside of the barricade, leaning against it. Finally, she just said to hell with the barricade altogether and just started walking around inside the supposedly off limits area, taking pictures and doing whatever she wanted like she belonged there, and no one seemed to be the wiser. We fully expected her to hop on the RSNT bus before she was done!
As it was getting close to the start time, we decided to move to a location where we could see the riders go by after the start. We walked down the street, past the start line and all the hubbub to a place where we could get a good look at the course and had some room to stand behind the barricade. When we got there, we waited until they came through. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, here they came.
As I saw them coming toward me, I decided to take a video to capture what it was like. I guess I didn't reckon just how long it would take for the Tour to go by. I figured it would take 2 or 3 minutes, but I wasn't even close. In fact, I was amazed how long the entire Tour took to pass our spot. It must have been about 10 minutes or so.
After we watched the start, we went back to the apartment to pack up and watch the Tour on television. One funny thing that happens watching the Tour on French TV is that it switches back and forth between channels. We were watching an important climb when all of a sudden the station went to commercials and never came back. In a panic, we started channel surfing and there it was on the other channel!
That afternoon I called Mme Trichereau and let her know we would be leaving at 5:30 (after the Tour ended). This was without question my greatest French-speaking accomplishment of the trip! When she actually arrived at 5:30, I was elated, but then pushed things one step too far. I decided to use some of the other words I know to tell her that we were going to Paris. Unfortunately, I think I instead told her that "We have to Paris." Oh well...
After we gave Mme Trichereau the keys and loaded up the car, we were off. We took a different route that required no cols which was just fine by me. We encountered a bit of Tour traffic early on, but nothing too bad, and by the time we got to the autoroute, it was smooth sailing.
The journey was long and uneventful, and we navigated successfully all the way to Paris with no problem. Of course, once we arrived in Paris (around 2:00am) we proceeded to immediately get lost (even with the Google Maps directions on my phone). We had to call the hotel and get some guidance which did the trick. We were actually quite close to the hotel, but it was a good thing we made the call; we might still be circling!
We did see this while we were driving around lost in Paris:
Anyway, with that, we were done with our wild ride around France. The rest of our time would be spent in Paris (with the exception of our planned trip to the time trial finish in Chartres).
We finally got to sleep around 4:00, and while it was an exceptionally long day, at least we would wake up in Paris and not have to waste a whole day of our vacation driving.
- Watch Stage 17 of the Tour as it leaves Luchon
- Watch the rest of Stage 17 (all the way to the finish in Peyragudes) on TV in the apartment
- Return the keys to the apartment to Mme Trichereau
- Drive to Paris to the Le Meridien Etoile
Anyway, we got up around around 9:00, ate our breakfast at the apartment, then headed out to see what was up. We found all the team busses lined up along the Allee d'Etigny, the main street in Luchon. We took a bunch of photos (see my previous post) and basically hung out in front of the RSNT bus. In fact, one of the representatives from Radio Shack gave us a copy of the team's magazine while we were there which was pretty cool.
This would be a good time to show a picture of the little passage we went through about 50 times a day in Luchon:
The Passage Sacarrere
This little passage went from our street to the main street of Luchon, and saved us a lot of time getting where we needed to go in town. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for that little passageway!
Anyway, back to the point of this post. As before, the riders started making their appearances, with RSNT and Team Sky seeming to be the last to pop out of their busses. Not sure that's something deliberate or what, but it seemed to happen every day.
There was one funny thing we witnessed while waiting to see the riders. A German lady was standing behind the barricade with the rest of us. Nothing odd there. Then she stood on a bench on the side of the road to get a better view. Still pretty reasonable. Then, she decided she could rest her feet by climbing over the barricade and then sititng on top of it. A few minutes later, since she was basically inside the barricade anyway, she decided to just stand on the inside of the barricade, leaning against it. Finally, she just said to hell with the barricade altogether and just started walking around inside the supposedly off limits area, taking pictures and doing whatever she wanted like she belonged there, and no one seemed to be the wiser. We fully expected her to hop on the RSNT bus before she was done!
As it was getting close to the start time, we decided to move to a location where we could see the riders go by after the start. We walked down the street, past the start line and all the hubbub to a place where we could get a good look at the course and had some room to stand behind the barricade. When we got there, we waited until they came through. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, here they came.
As I saw them coming toward me, I decided to take a video to capture what it was like. I guess I didn't reckon just how long it would take for the Tour to go by. I figured it would take 2 or 3 minutes, but I wasn't even close. In fact, I was amazed how long the entire Tour took to pass our spot. It must have been about 10 minutes or so.
After we watched the start, we went back to the apartment to pack up and watch the Tour on television. One funny thing that happens watching the Tour on French TV is that it switches back and forth between channels. We were watching an important climb when all of a sudden the station went to commercials and never came back. In a panic, we started channel surfing and there it was on the other channel!
That afternoon I called Mme Trichereau and let her know we would be leaving at 5:30 (after the Tour ended). This was without question my greatest French-speaking accomplishment of the trip! When she actually arrived at 5:30, I was elated, but then pushed things one step too far. I decided to use some of the other words I know to tell her that we were going to Paris. Unfortunately, I think I instead told her that "We have to Paris." Oh well...
After we gave Mme Trichereau the keys and loaded up the car, we were off. We took a different route that required no cols which was just fine by me. We encountered a bit of Tour traffic early on, but nothing too bad, and by the time we got to the autoroute, it was smooth sailing.
The journey was long and uneventful, and we navigated successfully all the way to Paris with no problem. Of course, once we arrived in Paris (around 2:00am) we proceeded to immediately get lost (even with the Google Maps directions on my phone). We had to call the hotel and get some guidance which did the trick. We were actually quite close to the hotel, but it was a good thing we made the call; we might still be circling!
We did see this while we were driving around lost in Paris:
The Arc de Triomphe lit up at night
We finally got to sleep around 4:00, and while it was an exceptionally long day, at least we would wake up in Paris and not have to waste a whole day of our vacation driving.
The Tour leaves Luchon
The Tour left Luchon on Stage 17 around noon. We decided that it would be cool to see the riders ride by, so after we hung out around the busses before the race, we headed down the street, passed the start area to a place where we could catch the riders coming by.
As a bit of background, the Tour actually does two starts. The first they call the départ fictif (I guess "fake start"). This start is the one where you see the 4 jersey wearers lined up at the start line and they all take off together. During the départ fictif, no one is allowed to attack, and basically the riders do a leisurely ride through town so all the people can get a good look at them.
The départ réel usually happens about 10 minutes later, and is when the real racing can begin. Riders will often attack almost as soon as the flag is dropped for the start of the départ réel.
We were waiting around a corner for the fake start and I captured a video. I wanted to see the riders go by, but quite honestly I didn't expect it to take quite as long as it did. Then, after filming so of the pre-rider part of the Tour, I figured I ought to get all the post-rider Tour as well. This meant two things:
So here is the main video. It shows all the vehicles that proceed the cyclist, the cyclists themselves, and nearly all the team cars.
The actual cyclists come by around the 4:15 mark if you aren't a glutton for punishment.
The second video is very short, and just catches the tail end of the Tour, including the truck to carry any vehicles that break down en route. (I wonder what truck carries the truck that carries broken down vehicles if it breaks down?)
What I didn't capture was the team coaches that came a few minutes later. I don't think they follow the Tour route everyday like the other cars and trucks do, but I did capture some pictures:
I'm guessing the coaches took the road straight to Peyragudes, a very short (probably 20-30km) drive.
As a bit of background, the Tour actually does two starts. The first they call the départ fictif (I guess "fake start"). This start is the one where you see the 4 jersey wearers lined up at the start line and they all take off together. During the départ fictif, no one is allowed to attack, and basically the riders do a leisurely ride through town so all the people can get a good look at them.
The départ réel usually happens about 10 minutes later, and is when the real racing can begin. Riders will often attack almost as soon as the flag is dropped for the start of the départ réel.
We were waiting around a corner for the fake start and I captured a video. I wanted to see the riders go by, but quite honestly I didn't expect it to take quite as long as it did. Then, after filming so of the pre-rider part of the Tour, I figured I ought to get all the post-rider Tour as well. This meant two things:
- The videos are exceptionally long with little view of the riders, and
- There is not much action in the videos.
So here is the main video. It shows all the vehicles that proceed the cyclist, the cyclists themselves, and nearly all the team cars.
The actual cyclists come by around the 4:15 mark if you aren't a glutton for punishment.
The second video is very short, and just catches the tail end of the Tour, including the truck to carry any vehicles that break down en route. (I wonder what truck carries the truck that carries broken down vehicles if it breaks down?)
What I didn't capture was the team coaches that came a few minutes later. I don't think they follow the Tour route everyday like the other cars and trucks do, but I did capture some pictures:
Team Europcar heading out...
The Saxo Bank coach leading a bunch of others
Random photos from the start of Stage 17 in Luchon
I don't have time for a full post of the start of the race in Luchon, but here are some random photos to tide you over:
Peter Sagan (coming)
Now I'm going to see the finale! See you later!
Maxime Bouet
Nibali or Sagan (or both) are probably in there
Federico Canuti
Name that rider!
Francis De Greef (Lotto) and Dries Devenyns
(OPQS)
Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) and
Sabastien Minard (AG2R)
Sabastien Minard (AG2R)
Sergio Paulinho (I think)
Ivan Basso
Stephen Cummings
Maxime Monfort (I believe)
Peter Sagan (coming)
Peter Sagan (going)
Now I'm going to see the finale! See you later!
Sorry for the delay in posting
Following the Tour and seeing Paris is taking most of my time. I'm still getting lots of great photos and stuff, but i need some more time to get them posted. Apologies...
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