Fin du Tour

27 July 2009- Put my friends on the train this morning. I was sorry to see them go. My good friend spent most of her Paris vacation in my apartment sick. Her husband and I went out. At least she made on the boat cruise so she saw the Eiffel Tower and got her picture with it. All was well in the rest of the tour of France so really no complaints. Just means she will have to return to "see" Paris. Extra biscotti gelato in your Honor, TAG.
This weekend was all things Tour De France. Saturday we watched the final mountain stage. Was a long shot for Lance to win but we cheered anyways. I even made queso ala Francaise. Requires some Cholula hot sauce, one jar of Salsa Charra (Old El Paso) and fondue cheese. It was fairly processed cheese so of course it worked like a champ. Ole!

Sunday was spent out on Avenue Champs Elysees. I had prepared for it this time. Not wearing white pants, brought chiller bag with beer and water, and the most vital thing, my stepstool. All good Parisians have a stepstool-ladder thing. It really gave us an advantage in watching and photographing the Tour riders.

Team Astana. Lance in black helmet, Alberto in yellow. One of 400 from the day...

I stayed on the CE with Tour fanatique to document the parade of teams. Took about an hour and Team Astana was of course last but I did get a shot of the winner with his Spanish flag from the crowd.

Saw lots of craziness. A girl was standing in the front basket of a bike while her boyfriend held the bike upright. American boys wearing berets. A woman with a huge lens on her Canon camera and her husband busily reading the manual to give her tips on how to work it. A baby in a stroller with a beanie on that read "Petite dictator". Our friends the F family with all 3 boys hanging off the stroller, a regular occurrence but still crazy. An obscene amount of hotdogs consumed. Tourists wandering around wondering "hey what is going on here today?"

A sea of yellow jerseys with children riding on the Champs Elysees. I did that last year and it is a cool feeling. A very good memory I will have forever, like these kiddos will.

One more time, Thor is not a homo. Ha ha ha. Extra points for those who caught the movie reference. The green jersey is the rider Thor from Norway on the Cervelo team. I think the name should be increased in the population. Come on Laura, Thor would be a great boy's name!

No more visitors at Chez Nickell until the end of August. I guess we have August off but unlike most Parisians, we will be spending it in Paris. Minus a weekend in Brussels possibly and our Norway adventure, Chad will be working as we are burning his vacation time slowly throughout the year rather than one month at a time. End of August, more cycling fanatiques (my aunt or ant as she writes and her guest) are coming. I hope their saddles are ready for Europe!