What a brilliant day!!!!!

Hi

I devised a plan to slip over to Montargis to see some of the Tour de France, big surprise what?? I have been following it on the telly but was desperate to see some in person. I could only get a bed for the night before the tour arrived in Montargis, so I took it. That meant I had to hang around until after 5pm for the boys to arrive, toting that bloody luggage with me every step of the way.. "So be it", I thought and made my plans. I had to be out of the hotel at 12, so I went to the supermarket at about 8am to get some supplies, I had no idea what I would do for lunch etc, so I brought Baguettes and cheese etc. I also brought a fold up chair for about $15 and an umbrella, the sun is really hot here, surprise, surprise, I didn't think they got hot weather, but they sure do, especially if your standing around in it. I found some locker like things outside the supermarket, I couldn't understand a word, so I wrote all the info down and went back to the hotel and Google translated it. You could leave your possessions there all day as long as they were gone by 8:30pm, for 1 Euro!!!!! BONUS!!!! Well I decided to do that, walk to town, about 1.5 klms and see what happened. I found the perfect spot to wait for the race, after the finish line and directly opposite the podiums. There were large televisions each side of the podium, so hopefully we could see the race, the finish and the presentations (we did, the coverage started about 2:30pm). I kept pinching myself, how good was this day getting, no luggage, a perfect spot, and the young couple sitting there were British! Someone to talk to who I could actually understand. WooHoo, what a day. Well we sat there for hours, I am so glad I purchased the brolly, it was stinking hot, the young Brits had a brolly too, smart folk. We sat there from about 10:30am onwards, the French started turning up about 1pm and seriously those people are rude, they started pushing as soon as the free stuff began being passed out. They are unbelievable, if you want to be at the front French People, GET THERE EARLIER!!! Bastards!! We held them off (kind of) until about 30kms to go, then we folded up our chairs and let them in, BIG MISTAKE!! They were unstoppable then. By the time the cyclists arrived (about 1 hour later) we were exhausted. Mary, the young English girl had been pushed out altogether and was clinging to her boyfriend, Phil's back... It was appalling, but I did learn something, don't pack up your chair until 5 minutes to go, or not at all, bugger 'em...

Anyway I saw Cavendish win, and then watched all the presentations. I was really exhausted by this stage, the sun really can make you tired. I still had to go back to Amilly and collect my luggage (about 1.5 kms), then walk the 4 kms from there to the railway station, shit, what had I been thinking?? Never mind when I retrieved my suitcase the 1 Euro coin fell out, BONUS!! I have gotten my luggage kept all day for free.. YES!! When I brought the chair in the morning I had no intention of keeping it, I thought $15 bucks was a good price for a seat at the tour and I was happy to pay it and get rid of the chair, I have enough to carry. So as I was walking back to Amilly I stopped lent the chair against a fence, had a drink, buggered about a bit and then walked off, hoping no one would notice and remind me I had left the chair, well they didn't. Not sure if they didn't notice or didn't care. Anyway on the way back to town I watched to see if it would still be there, looking abandoned, forlorn and ridiculous, like a cyclist I won't mentions dreams of success (LA, he he he)... But no it wasn't , so somebody had a win too, good for them, I hope they enjoy it as much as I did. I may buy another on in Bordeaux, it was a good investment, I would never have lasted the day without it.. Money well spent.

I still had nowhere to sleep for the night,so decided to head to Paris as I needed to head south the next day. The French have this weird thing where everything starts in Paris, you cannot go from the east of France to the bottom of France without going to Paris, you cannot cross France at all by train, without going to Paris, shitty but there it is!! So I thought I would head to Paris, use the free wifi at the station and book a bed then head south the next day. What could go wrong?? Well apparently there is no wifi in Gare de Lyon (the Paris train station)... Bugger! So I go outside to see what is available, lots of hotels along the street, so I start at the first one. I should add that by this time I did not look too flash, I was hot, tired, smelly and the Aussie scarf I had been wearing and wetting all day to keep cool, had bled blue dye all over the back of my white shirt. Yep great look to try to find a room at 10pm at night. Anyway the first two hotels I tried weren't having any of it, but luckily the 3rd one would take me, but it would cost me over $200 for one night. Well beggars can't be choosers and I decided that it was a lesson I would learn, and besides I had had such a brilliant day, and was on such a high, that I wasn't coming down for anybody. So I paid and spent the night.

I left Paris this morning and arrived at Lyon before lunch. Not a bad city, lots of nice little places. I went the park to wait for my room to be ready, well it was full of wino's really.. But all sorts of normal folk use it too, apparently they don't bother each other, strange, but true. I walked a bit further and was in a really nice shopping area, lots of little streets and nice restaurants, France is a funny place in some things. I saw a heap of statues, the French are big on statues, mostly of people I haven't heard of, but lots of General De Guille.

Anyway I am now in my hotel, i shall spend the afternoon watching the tour on telly and listening to the English broadcast on my laptop, life doesn't get any better than this.. I shall explore Lyon this evening and head to Avignon tomorrow, I have a week booked there and I think it is time to spend a week in one place, I am getting tired moving about so much.

I shall leave you with some pics

Cheers

Lones


Montargis ready for the tour to arrive.


The perfect position, right opposite this.. YES!!


The start of the parade/Caravan..


Cavandish clearly had it..


This shows how close I was to the cyclists, heaven... What a brilliant day!! I loved it!!


The presentations..