It's been a fairly relaxed couple of days in Paris - a weekend off after a hard week at work on the bike!
As the only intention of coming here was to watch the Tour De France final, rather than pack too much in I purposely decided to leave the sightseeing to another trip, as odd as that migth seem. Saturday was spent buying a camera for the trip, and visiting the Centre Pompidou - an inside-out building built in the late 70's which houses modern art. The art was hit and miss for me, though it was interesting to see the large Picasso collection. However I was more interested in the building itself which was incredible, a big interwoven maze of steel girders and ducting.
Sunday was devoted to Le Tour. I found a spot with a bunch of Brits who I happened to get chatting with - right by the Arc De Triumph, with the Eiffel Tower and a big screen TV showing coverage right in front of me; perfect! About 3pm in the scorching sun, 10,000 amateur cyclists cruised round the route as a bit of a charity thing, followed by a procession of hundred of tour sponsor vehicles.
Later, the live TV coverage came on of the tour, until about 8pm suddenly what was live on the TV was actually right in front of us! It was very excting, but so fast it was hard to work out who's who - the TV helped with that. 8 laps later, and Mark Canvendish didn't quite make it 5 tour final wins in a row, but nonetheless Britain's Chris Froome took home the overall title. Being on the spot I was, for the 100th Tour, with a Brit winning is a moment I'll never forget.
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