My Tour de France Experience

I know, I know. Why do I always have to post travel stories? Sorry. If you don't want to read about the Tour de France, then you'll just have to wait a few weeks until I make another travel advice post. But if you need something to do or will be visiting France next summer, read "Information". If you want to read a story, scroll down to where it says "Story." There's also a cool video from the Tour de France at the end. Happy reading!

Information: 
First of all, the Tour de France is an annual bicycle race that is based primarily in France (duh) but it also occasionally passes through surrounding countries. Over 23 days, the competitors from various countries complete 21 stages (étapes), over 3000km. The final stage always ends on the Champs-Elysees, and leader at the end of the race gets a highly coveted yellow jersey. (The cyclists can't just all go to Walmart and pick up yellow shirts after the race; I guess there's some symbolism involved here.) There are also more coloured shirts for best climber, best youth cyclist, and best sprinter. Every summer, people come from all over the country (and other parts of Europe!) to watch different stages of the race.

If you want to see the Tour de France, you have two options.
#1) Watch the sweaty cyclists race past you in a blur as you stand on the roadside along the racecourse.  No matter how much you de-blur your photos, they will not even be worthy of Instagram.  OR:
#2) Go to the city/town a stage of the Tour is starting in, and take part in the hours of festivities before and after the cyclists leave to begin their next stage. This includes floats, prizes, food, and even a few Instagram-worthy photos.

A map of the 2012 Tour de France course.

Well, there's certainly an obvious choice here (and it's not #1). So in 2012, my family went to Limoux to see the start of a stage of the 99th Tour de France.
Even if you don't like biking, it's a pretty awesome event to get to watch the start of a stage. If you're in the right area of France at the right time, I would definitely recommend going. An added bonus is the fact that there's always lots of food.

More information: http://www.letour.com/de/

Story: (My Tour de France experience)

It's six in the morning when I'm woken up. I sit up and look out the window at our garden and open up the windows, feeling the fresh air of Southern France on my face. I'm trying to savour the moment when I hear a strange noise downstairs. *splurch slurp chomp splorch* Oh, it's the pet cat eating breakfast. So much for savouring the moment. Now I remember that today we're going to watch the Tour de France! Yay! I'm so excited! But I still want to go back to bed.

Before...

After breakfast, we drive through the morning light for an hour and a half. Why is everything so dark? Oh yeah, it's because I woke up at SIX IN THE MORNING to get dumped into a car where the door handle gets in the way of my jacket/pillow so I can't sleep. Trust me, there are serious considerations when choosing a car to rent. You have to find one where the inside of the car doesn't have the window button in the wrong place because it wedges into your ear when you're trying to relax... got a little off topic.
We get to the outskirts of the town of Limoux, and I'm awake thanks to the guys with little plastic glow sticks directing us around.
The good news: We got here early so we should get a great parking space close to city centre, where the Tour de France starts.
The bad news: "Good parking space" constitutes as "only a 2km walk!"
*sigh*

...After!

The walk was actually pretty interesting. We got to see the local wildlife (pigeons of Limoux), I almost tripped over a Tour de France banner, and I saw a squad of these tiny cars herding people around. They were actually part of the Tour de France organization, but I didn't know that until later. (I was a gullible kid back then... thought that it was okay to use a group of cars to herd a bunch of people.)
After about half an hour, we got to the main street of Limoux, where the organizers were just setting up. There were still two and a half hours until the actual festivities began. Almost as if I didn't have to get up at six in the morning. We were able to pass the time by eating croissants, getting Tour de France t-shirts, and taking pictures of the aforementioned local wildlife.
Soon after, they started playing music and everyone crowded around a big stage in the centre of a nearby square. The mayor of Limoux and some important-looking people wearing suits welcomed us to the Tour de France, etc etc. Then, the crowd of people rushed back to the start line, and we got to see a giant parade of the Tour's sponsors.
Each company was represented by an elaborately decorated float with lots of cars around it. Besides looking fabulous, lots of the floats threw free samples into the crowd as a promotion. I got a bag, a hat, a keychain, a (non metal) water bottle, a pen, and my favourite-- a blow-up plastic pillow from the Ibis hotel chain.

"The guy with the yellow jersey"

The crowd was at least ten rows deep, but I was lucky-- right in the front, mashed into the metal gate that ensures nobody falls out onto the road and gets run over by a float. (That would be a pretty embarrassing way to die; getting mowed down by a truck that throws blow-up pillows as free samples to everyone.)
I have to say, I was pretty impressed with the experience so far-- and I hadn't even seen the cyclists yet! The stunning ambiance is like a spectrum of colours... (insert fancy vocabulary here)... it was good.

And they're off!

Finally, the floats were replaced with cyclists, all grouped in teams, with very expensive-looking bike-racing suit things. According to my travel diary, "the guy with the yellow jersey was in the front" (excellent observations by my 10-year old self). The herding cars moved out of the way, and the music was replaced by a stunning silence. Two massive clocks on either side of the start banner showed the seconds before the cyclists could leave. I don't think it was really necessary to vocally count down from 50... but never mind. I'm ruining the Tour de France Vibe here.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1... GO! My thoughts, in order, after the cyclists started down the road:
1) MY CAMERA! This is definitely gonna make it onto Instagram! *fails to take decent video because of all the people screaming around me*
2) What am I doing? Savour the moment, you idiot! *puts camera in bag* *watches for one second*
3) Okay, let's get that video! *pulls out camera*
4) Darn it they're around the bend.
5) Okay lets go home. I'm hungry.
6) Ooooo airplanes flying overhead! They have contrails the colour of the French flag! *gets decent photo of airplanes*
7) That was pure genius... I missed the cyclists but I got the airplanes.

A great way to end my experience with the Tour de France 2012.

It really was an amazing experience. Luckily I did get some decent photos, some of which were of the natural wildlife (they are not included in this post.) I also gained about 30 pounds in croissants-- my family basically rolled me back to the town we were staying in. To conclude I'm definitely going to remember the 99th Tour de France for a long time, and I hope one day I can watch the beginning of another stage... even if it means waking up at six in the morning :)

And to conclude, here's a video of the Tour de France. If you find yourself in France at the right time, in the right place... you just might be able to watch one of the world's greatest bike races.