Tour De France & Beer! (what a combo...)

Hello again! I was going to post these pictures tomorrow but tomorrow is my 45th (!) birthday!  {smile}

I'll first be celeberating this momentous occasion with a visit to Value Village (second hand store) and lunch with Tif and in the evening we will be celebrating my Dutch aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary so lots of celebrating all around!  {smile}

So, on July 24th we were in Paris to actually witness the final leg of the Tour De France! Now I am not a Tour fan at all and I don't think the rest of the family is either, but the final leg, in Paris??? So of we went to the 'Pont de Tolbiac' near the 'Parc de Bercy' to find ourselves a good viewing spot. We found one since we were ridiculously early and there was hardly anybody else there. We actually ended up standing on that same bridge for 4 hours (!) but the weather was gorgeous and it was just fun to live the moment.

We had heard that the caravan preceeding the actual Tour would hand out goodies but no such luck! (I think they kept all the goodies for the people on the Champs Elysees...) That was a bummer but Miss M. managed to get a signed photograph of Raymond  Poupilard (that was not his real name but something close to it) a famous retired Tour person and she bought a fun Tour umbrella and we got two t-shirts also...

The Caravan was crazy!!!! Just like an American parade or a Dutch carnival celebration. My personal highlight was a guy in a speedo (so French! [wink]) dancing around a stripper pole: hilarious!!! ('Dorothy, I don't think we're in America any more...')

Anyway, here are some impressions...

And the final arrival of the peleton...

The peleton wizzed by in a matter of seconds so I didn't actually see anything since I was right behind the camera of course (it was in sport's mode so it clicked and clicked and clicked).

Do you see Mister Cadel (the winner) in his yellow jersey in the middle? I'll add a close-up...

I'll leave you with some lovely beer pictures in celebration of my Birthday tomorrow: Cheers!  {smile}