France - Tour de France - July 2009

The Tour de France has always a highlight on the yearly sporting calendar for me and as we love France, we thought, what the hey, let's go and see France, have a great time and check out Cadel and the rest of the riders at the tour.

We had just bought a tent and some various camping paraphernalia and off we went!

We were not really sure what to expect...how fast would they go? Would there be a breakaway? What would it be like?

It was brilliant!

We saw two stages - one, a really steep mountain stage and our car was part of the Tour as we had the 5 kilometre to Summet banner tied to our car. It was also really wet and a tad difficult to recognise the riders due to their rain jackets but hey, we were at le tour and it was bloody cool anyway.

Check the pics.

Troyes and Champagne Region - France - July 2009

Troyes is an interesting city, on the edge of the Champagne Region, not a million miles from Paris.

A picturesque city and coincidentally, if viewed from above, shaped like a champagne cork - unplanned as the design of the city was completed before champagne became as popular as it is, but nevertheless, an interesting coincidence.

The Champagne Region is, unpredictably, where the wonderful drink of champagne is produced.

There are loads and loads of champagne wineries, from small producers in beautiful villages, right through to the major producers like Moet, Mumm, etc who are found in the town of Epernay.

We took a tour through the Mercier champagne winery and it was really quite good.

Enjoy the pics.