LE TOUR DE FRANCE

We arrived in Barcelona and stayed the night in a hotel right at the airport.  We watched one of our favourite movies, road trip, and even in Spanish it was still damn funny!

The next morning we were back at the airport, trying to find the cheapest car available.  After trying several options, and me trying to convince Anna to allow us to get a manual (which would mean her driving the whole time haha), we finally signed the papers with Avis and drove out the gates in a nice Peaugot.........700 euro's lighter!!!

Cardona

Away from the beaches and mountains is a host of little-visited towns splashed across the hinterland.  About halfway between Barcelona and the Pyrenees, we passed through a cool little town called Cardona which had a great castle complex.  About 50km further was the town of Solsona.

the Solsona bell tower

They call the people of Solsona "matarucs" (donkey killers), which seems an odd tag until you hear what the townsfolk's favourite festive activity used to be.  Every february, the highpoint of Solsona's carnival was the hoisting of a donkey, by the neck, up the town bell tower.  The donkey, literally scared to death, would defecate and urinate on its way up, much to delight of the drunken crowd below.  To be hit by either substance was a sign of good fortune for the coming year hahaha.

the town of Perve.........full of seedy old men haha

Passing through the town of Ponts, we found a great little bakery, and with the avocado's we bought in Solsona, we had a great lunch of vegemite and avocado rolls!

The scenery continued to amaze us after lunch and once we saw the stream coming down from the Pyrenees mountains, we had to stop and cool ourselves off.

Once we passed the sign for the Val d'Aran, we knew we were close to Vielha, our destination for the next three nights.  This area was so big, but yet so quiet, it was a secret world of cloud scraping mountain peaks and grassy slopes dotted with tiny villages, so beautiful.

We finally arrived in Vielha after nearly 4 hours of driving.  It was a pretty nice town and you could definitely imagine it covered in snow in winter with all its chalet style architecture.

our hotel was in an awesome location, right in the heart of town on the river (first one on the right)

We were absolutely stuffed, even though we hadn't actually done much that day, and after a short rest we set out to explore the city, but didn't get very far as we found a bar serving sangria and some great tapas snacks.

The next morning we were up nice and early to drive about 45 minutes across the border into France to the town of Bagneres du Luchon where stage 16 of the Tour de France was due to finish.  We were worried about roads being closed, but we managed to squeeze through and driver a further 15km into the mountains before police stopped us and said we couldn't go any further.

We were still 5km from the summit of the last climb, the Col de Peyrosourde, so we had to get out and walk!

almost at the top, about 1km to go

In the searing 36 degree heat, it was a bloody tough walk, but after about 2 hours and plenty of stops, we finally reached the 15km to go mark for the riders.

A few hundred metres up from here was the summit of the Col de Peyrosourde, the last of 4 climbs that the riders had to ascend before getting an easy ride into the finish at Bagneres du Luchon.

the Col de Peyrosourde was at an altitude of 1,569m

the climb was rated as a "1 category" meaning it's as hard as it gets

Once we reached the top, there were so many people up there already, and after much deliberation, we decided that we would have a better spectacle if we walked back down a few hundred metres near where the 15km to go mark was.

We filled in time with playing cards, listening to music, watching some tv and making some great avocado/vegemite sandwiches and chatting to the other Aussies that were standing on the side of the road with us, all eager to see Cadel Evans come flying over the top of the mountain!

waiting to offer Cadel some vegemite

A little over an hour before the leader was due to reach us, the Tour De France caravan came past. The caravan is a 45 minute multi-coloured procession of floats and vehicles from an array of different French brands that drive in front of the TDF field from town to town.  Along the way they play loud pumping music and throw gifts out to the crowd who are all clambering and waving, trying to secure the best gift.

A survey carried out amongst people who came to watch the tour revealed that 39% of spectators come first and foremost to see the publicity caravan!  You can see why as well, it was so much fun!

When the riders came through, it made sense why so many people prefer the caravan than the actual race itself.  They flew past us so quickly, it was impossible to even tell who they were apart from the obvious guys. Having said that, it was still an awesome atmosphere and so glad we were there to see it.

Frenchman Thomas Voekler, current leader and eventual winner of stage 16

Brad Wiggins in the yellow jersey, eventual winner of the Tour De France

Unfortunately Cadel Evans had a bout of sickness an hour before the the day commenced and he was never able to keep up with the guys at the front.  It was a bit of a let down for us as we were so keen to see him up the front and hoping for him to get some time back from Wiggins, but it was not to be.

Cadel Evans coming past us a long way behind the leaders

watching Cadel Evans going down the hill from our  spot

standing up on the wooden things by side of the road, I copped the worst splinter EVER

After the struggling riders at the back came past us, we then commenced walking the 5km back to our car.  It was a long way, but certainly a lot easier walking back down!  Unfortunately the amount of sun we had been subject to all day, accompanied by all the walking, had made Anna quite sick and the drive home was not a good one as we stopped numerous times for Anna to relieve her stomach.

That night was a really quiet one as Anna basically slept from the moment we got home.  I went out for a bit of a walk around town and a brief dinner and then spent the rest of the night catching up on some blogging.

Luckily the next morning Anna was feeling better as we had another day of the TDF to go.  We again drove over the border into France and back to the pretty town of Bagneres du Luchon.  The place was absolutely buzzing as all the riders and team buses were there preparing for stage 17.

We were able to walk around and watch all of the riders warming up, having their bikes tweaked by the team mechanics and giving interviews to the swarms of different media from all around the globe.

I'm pretty sure this guy was not one of the TDF riders!

The Orica GreenEdge team bus

Although it was good to see the Orica GreenEdge bus, which was competing in its first Tour De France and is mostly made up of Australian riders, all we wanted to do was get to the BMC bus to catch a glimpse of the man himself, Cadel Evans.

There was a big crowd of Aussies hanging around, but we managed to squeeze our way in to the front and when Cadel came out of the BMC bus, we all cheered loud for him and hoped that the previous days sickness had gone.

We were lucky that the course for stage 17 left Bagneres du Luchon, but then about 125km later it was due to swing around and bypass the town by what we thought was about 3.5km.  So we set off on foot with a lot of other people who obviously had the same idea as us.

We had stacked up on supplies for lunch, but we were lacking some form of meat.  Literally about 500m after Anna and I both said how much we felt like a roast chicken, we came across a little market, and guess what, hot roast chickens!  We couldn't believe it!

We walked and walked and walked and walked and were getting very tired, when finally we came to the area where the riders were due to come past with about 20km to the finish of stage 17.  We set up shop and had to wait about 3 hours before they were due to come past.

Again the caravan of give-aways came past, but this time it was even better because we had a great spot and ended up with loads of great stuff!

Anna was really excited after she got some free washing detergent haha

free muffins!

all of our goodies, we were especially happy with the key rings which will be great mementos

this would have been received much better the day before with such hot conditions

little tacker getting into it

After the caravan past we were not sure how long we had until the first rider(s) came past, but it wasn't long before the yellow motorbike showed up, meaning the leader(s) were not far away.

the jar of vegemite became part of my outfit!

As the riders started top come through, the atmosphere was electric, everyone was going nuts.  It was such a better spectacle than the day before as the riders were going uphill and hence a lot slower.

Thomas Voeckler, wearing the white and red spot jersey for leader of the King of the Mountain (KOM)

Brad Wiggins, sitting comfortably in the chasing pack

Cadel Evans came through with the peloton, so unfortunately this meant that his chances of winning back-to-back TDF's was all but over.  It was really good though to see his huge chin up close and we certainly cheered loud for him.  Later that night I tweeted him saying that I had tried to give him some vegemite for extra energy, and he actually wrote back saying "bugger, I missed it" hah!

Cadel on the right

Once all the riders had passed, we headed back to town with the rest of the crowd.  Amazingly we bumped in to Gen and Chris, a couple we had met in Noosa last summer through Anna's friend Eliza Holyman, small world!

Bagneres du Luchon in the distance

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it back to the car and headed for home.  We checked the GPS and had to laugh as the 3.5km walk we had just walked both ways was actually 3.5 miles!

The drive back to Vielha, about 40 minutes, was much nicer this time around without Anna throwing up every 10 minutes haha!  So many beautiful gingerbread like houses scattered amongst the valleys, we would love to see it in winter, covered in snow.

That night we walked around town for a while, had sangria and tapas for dinner, a few more sangria's and then hit the sack around midnight, ready for the long drive to San Sebastian the next day.

Right near where our car was parked, the was a little market going on the next morning and Anna took the chance to grab some olives from the huge amount on offer.  They were all hers though as although my palate is continually expanding, olives are still on my list of hated foods!