Sunday, July 24, 2011 - Paris and the Tour de France Final

Going to the Tour de France today.  We didn’t have this on our itinerary but thought we would just go and check it out.

We started out not knowing what to expect to find when we got on the subway to the race area.  It turned out to be another great Barnett Adventure.

We were not at the actual finish line of the race but we were able to get get inside the part of the course where they do the 8 laps up and down the Champs Elysees.

Race course with the Plaza Concorde and Eiffel Tower in the background

The is a group of bikers clearing the course.

Crowds around waiting for the big moment.

They had a parade of all the sponsors before the racers came.

It was something I didn’t expect and so many cute cars.

   

  

  

Shared a table while we were waiting for the racers to come by the first time with a group of riders from Sweden.

Beautiful day for the finish of the race after all the rain we have had in Paris since we have been here.  It turned out to be probably the warmest day since we have been in Paris.

   Is this a good spot or what! A chair, a table, lunch and some wine.  We could not have planned it to be this nice.

I got a Tour de France shirt with the map of France and the race course.

We got to see Evans and the yellow jersey and got several good pictures. Big crowd of people.  We did meet people from all over the world that were just out for a good time.

See the bicycle rider with the Yellow Shirt (not the guy taking a picture)  - that’s the winner!