T | our de France |
July 12 - 25, 1999 |
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We are bicyclists but have never been particular enthousiasts of the greatest bicycle race of them all, the Tour de France. But soon after we arrived in France this annual multi-week event began. And watching it on TV became nearly "appointment" TV. It wasn't so much the bicycling itself, but everything that went with it: each day a view at another region of France, a chance to hear "real" people being interveriewed. Learning how the French treat what for them is a big event. The tour ends, always ends, in Paris, with two turns up and down the Champs Elyeese. This year we were there. We weren't smart enough to come at 6 a.m. or whatever time it takes to get a good place. We had to squeeze in. When the cyclists came by we could only see them through a narrow window frame made of the necks of those more fortunates in front of us. Kaboom! Kamboom. They're coming. They're gone. And thus it was that we had a chance for the adrenilin to run, less than a second or two each of the two passes. |