Day 50 (20/7) - Farewells and convene in Geneva

Today was a sad day, our last day with the guys and our last tour stage. Reuben and the boys were up early to climb Mont Revard (a jaunty little 15.9 km at 5.6%).  We watched the second last stage of the tour eating BBQ with a bottle of Chignin white (a local wine) in the 35 degree sun. After the caravan we where interviewed by a local French paper (probably because of Reuben's ridiculous sunglasses). After the tour screamed past Reuben claimed his best Tour souvenir yet, a large watch for speed hump TDF sign. Heartfelt farewells and many hugs as we parted ways with our intrepid camper-van companions. Special mention to Matt Scott who's organisational skills and occasional leadership made the following and riding the TDF a lifetime highlight.  Anne-Marie and I arrived in Geneva and immediately realised a difference in style, we find a restaurant first, and worry about where to stay later. A quintessential Swiss restaurant served us onion soup (mostly melted cheese), a cheese Fondue, and a Raclette (melted cheese, 3 serves with 3 little boiled potatoes). Needless to say, cheesed out.

A panorama from the top of Mont Revard, France laid out like a map

All lined up ready for the tour to roll through

Reuben with his last TDF souvenir

Cheese Fondue and Rachlette 

Geneva by night is pretty

And lively

Day 49 (19/7) - Sign on and rain down

Watched the start of Stage 19 which involved the riders warming up and signing on before the tour left the town of Bourg D'Oisans. A wet slow crowded drive to Saint Jean D'Arvey followed by our last dinner together with the crew and some long exposure fun with Matt's SLR.

Reuben - 'Look at the snail'
Lachie - 'They prefer to be called "Escargot!"'

A familiar face rolling out to sign on

French pastries, so tempting

What starts out as a crazy experiment

Grow some wheels

And turns Anne-Marie into a happy angel

Day 48 (18/7) - Spectator bonanza

We walked up to Alpe d'Huez corner two with chairs and a picnic of baguettes, cheese and wine ready to watch stage 18. It was probably the best stage to watch because the atmosphere was incredible and the riders all crawl past on the 11% incline twice. Quite the spectacle. We all got into the mood dressing up and joining in on the frivolities. Pictures may speak louder than words on this one.

Matt, Flic and Reuben ready for the walk up the hill, Lachie and Erica saving us a spot

The climb hasn't started yet

Matt and Reuben stop for a quick photo with Didi, one of the iconic TDF characters

A thirsty frenchman helps us with our goonsack.

Reuben gets in the mood with some TDF kit

These morph suited character are in the TDF leading jersey colours (except the pink one, I think he got lost on the Giro)

Anticipation, the road is packed awaiting the first rider to appear down the hill

Team Sky leads the chase, It's hard to be excited when they have it in the bag

You can get really close to the riders on the hill stages, much more fun than the flat ones.

Day 44 (14/7) - Bastille day bliss

Bastille day, Reuben and the boys were up early to climb Mont Ventoux, Bill decided not to join us, it's 21km at 7.5%, but don't let that fool you it peaks out with a good 6km at 9%+, cruel and unusual punishment. The number of cyclists on the mountain made it feel like Brunswick street, Fitzroy at 8am on a Monday morning in spring. The camper-vans and cycling fans lined the road up the whole mountain and the atmosphere was electric. After making the punishing ascent we tried to descend but it was bedlam, children, police and TDF workers all vying for space on the skinny windy road while we wanted to rocket down at 80. Going down the mountain on a different road we ended up doing a run through the gorges de la Nesque one of the most spectacular roads I have seen let alone ridden. As Matt put it, "Best ride of my life, Ventoux on Bastille day and gorges de la Nesque".

After the ride Reuben learned Anne-Marie had politely and diplomatically moved Bill on after he used up the other cars drinking water washing himself. Anne-Marie gets stuff done. We watched the TDF riders come through town before starting their own painful assent of Ventoux in the now nasty mid afternoon sun. The French Air Force did salute them with a fighter jet formation doing a coloured smoke display over the peak as they approached the finish.

Reuben with the Alcatel Android before the race.

Pointing to Mont Ventoux with our commemorative matching jumpers.

Day 37 (7/7) - Tour stage 9, Exploration and romance.

We drove to the french town of Beaudean, 5.5 kms from the finish of stage 9 and set up for the race. With 4 hours to pass, Anne-Marie went exploring on her bike. She found a lovely french restaurant hidden around the corner which the two of us later dined at for lunch, delicious food and nice and romantic. She also discovered a fantastic delicatessen a town further on, it was very busy so she dragged Reuben back afterwards and the gentleman gave us a little tour describing all these different french delicacies and wine. We walked away with cheese, wine, Pate de Sanglier (wild boar pate) and some Confit de Porc. We spent the evening camped on the side of a river in the Pyrenees.

Reuben makes another friend at the closed bike shop.

Trying to find our way through the finishing town, Matt takes us up the closed finishing straight, much to the angst of the race organisers, and applause of the bewildered onlookers.

The Caravan commences.

Day 34 (4/7) - Tour watching and surprise resort towns.

We set up the camper vans 16 kms from the finish of stage 6, just after a round about. With a few hours to spare we braved the 35 degree heat and rode into the nearby town to enjoy a yummy lunch and a beer at a sports bar that was showing the race. We arrived back 2 hrs before the cyclists were due to return and tackled children for the usual free giveaways. Being a fast flat stage the whole pelaton passed us in about 20 seconds making the 4 hour wait seem a little excessive. After the race we headed off to find somewhere to stay, pulling into a depressing looking car park/caravan park in Palavos-les-Flots and began to prepare for what looked like a very average evening. Luckily we started chatting to some Aussies that informed us that only 10 mins walk down the road was a good beach with lots of restaurants. We were very surprised, we found hundreds of tanned french people playing beach volley ball, loads of restaurants and shops. Anne-Marie enjoyed a 1kg bucket of mussels with blue cheese sauce for dinner, Reuben tasted sea snails for the first time, we had ice-cream from a shop with over 30 flavours and ended the night with a roller coaster ride at an amusement park. Some days on holiday seem like three days in one.

Reuben enjoying his lunch

Reuben, Matt and Erica cheering the boys on

Reuben with snails and more

Enjoying the roller coaster

Day 32 (2/7) - Tour Team Time Trial (TTTT) in Nice

We caught the train into Nice to watch our first Tour de France stage (stage 4), the team time trial. We enjoyed croissants, coffee and a french lesson from the waiter for morning tea and baguettes for lunch. It was exciting to see a race start, all the team mechanics preparing the bikes, the team vans and all the paraphernalia. We had our first glimpse of the "caravan", the brigade of sponsors vans that drive along the tour route about an hour or two before the cyclists come through, throwing out hats, lollies, chips, magnets, key-rings and head-socks just to name a few. It was fun to watch Reuben and Matt as they jumped around trying to be the ones to collect the most, tackling the occasional child and grandma in the process. It was a hot sunny day but enjoyable to watch the Aussie team, Orica-Greenedge win the race and push Simon Gerrans into the yellow jersey position. We were happy to see how many Aussie bogans had made the trip.

Cadels TTT bike, if a bike can be sexy....

Flic and Anne-Marie saying hi to the french fireman while they enjoyed a tasty icecream (the firemen not the girls).

Anne-Marie (not) watching the race (but holding my beer much to the policeman's merriment :-)

Reuben looking ridiculous with a silver hat to reflect the 35 degree sun.