Is watching the Tour de France in person on your bucket list? If not, maybe it should be. All the details you need are here. This week was our fourth time to see it (see previous post), and it's always great fun. Even watching it on TV is amusant, because you get a free aerial view of the French countryside, and it's gorgeous. The route changes yearly and the Côte d'or was on the route this year. You could see aerial views like Semur-en-Auxois (the start of the July 6th stage), Château de la Rochepot, and Château Sainte Sabine.
But don't think you're going to just stroll out and watch the bikes go by and go home--even though the pack, or pelaton as it's called, take about 20 seconds to zip by you. It's always a big event, an all day affair. Well, any excuse for a French party. Our stage also happened to be the 4th of July, so we had lots to celebrate.
If you're not familiar with the tour, there are 176 male riders and 22 teams. The race goes on for 21 days (a day's race is called a stage), along a punishing course, about 2200 miles total. It ends July 21 this year, so you can still check in. Though individuals win various stages and categories, plus the grand prize, it's mostly a team effort.
This year, our friends Julie and Paul hosted our watch party of 20. The day before, they scouted a good spot to pitch a party tent, deep in the vineyards near Mersault. Even the day before, one could see lots of camper vans parked along the route, getting set up to watch it. (Note: don't pick a spot at the bottom of a hill, where they will go by in a blur). This particular day the stage went from Macon to Dijon, and it wound around the narrow vineyard roads through several pretty wine villages near us.
We arrived at 1pm, with coolers of wine and snacks, to see the "caravan". This is a sort of pre-game show, a parade of fast cars. There are various gendarmes in cars or on motorcycles, lights flashing, and lots of press vehicles. Then come the sponsors. They ride on fancy decorated trucks, music blaring and shouting to the crowd. They throw swag at the crowd as they zip by.
Everyone dives for the goodies. We collected T-shirts, hats, detergent, samples, candy, packages of cracker or olive oil, all sorts of treasures. A friend was standing next to a a three-year-old boy, so adorable that the sponsors aimed a lot of swag right at him. He collected quite a cache. She shamelessly negotiated with him, and was able to get a nice zebra print sleep mask in exchange for a pack of candy.
By 3 o'clock the caravan was over and we started to see more press cars coming by. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the riders, who were to arrive around 3:30. There is a helicopter that follows and videos the tour the whole way, so this harks their arrival, and everyone was straining to see and hear the distant chopper. Other helicopters zipped by, taking those aerial views of the beautiful countryside.
Winners from the stage the day before wear a particular color jersey. Here is what to watch for: the leader of the race so far wears a bright yellow jersey, called the Maillot Jaune. The white one is worn by the fastest rider under age 26. A green jersey is worn by the winner of the the complicated daily points system, which means in fact he is a strong sprinter. The garish, red and white polka-dot jersey is worn by the "king of the mountain", the best climber.
The excitement grows with the buzz of the approaching helicopter, and the revelers abandon their lawn chairs to position themselves along the route. Finally, we spot the peloton about a half a mile away. Allez allez! A couple of quick snaps with our phones, and they leave us in the dust. The crowd where we were watching was uncharacteristically polite, no idiots jumping out in front of the riders or trying to touch them.
The riders are followed by a series of cars carrying the back-up bikes on their roof. Literally Hundreds of bikes go by!
And at the very end is the balay van, or the broom truck, whose mission it is to sweep up any riders that give up, dropout, fall, or experience some other catastrophe.
Then it was time to pack up and go back to Mersault to Julie's and Paul's house, for an afternoon barbecue that went well into the evening. Phew! It's pretty exhausting, this Tour de France!
In the COMMENTS: Karim has some new wine terminology for us. Colleen, ignore those folks! I didn't drink wine for a year after Covid, so I know what you mean. Natalia, thanks for your nice comments. I neatened up for the shots! Dottie, I did not remember that Alex is a sommelier, he must come to Beaune sometime.
Katherine, the cork kindling idea is brilliant, that's news to me. Vicky and Rollin's suggest a wreath, and Rollin has included a link for that. and Melinda suggest trivets. Ellen, I have no doubt your creative husband will come up with some fabulous idea, if you don't come up with one first.
Favorite READS and VIEWS: If you want to watch the race without spending hours every day, try the one-hour highlight show every evening on Peacock.
Natalia has a good book for us, comme d'habitude: The Lost Bookshop, by Evie wood. Merci Natalia!
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