# Touring with Le Tour



## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Salute from Metz! I am cycling in France and Belgium and seeing some of the Tour de France stages along the way. I have met many great people and visited beautiful towns along the way. I am even being hosted by locals in Metz for the weekend. Metz has been fantastic to visit and I am grateful for their kindness. 

I will ride to Nancy today and then train to Besancon for the time trial. Then go to either Etapes 10 or 11. Probably Col du Grand Colombier or Col de la Madeleine or Col de la Croix de Fer. Any recommendations?

I learned about the rivalry between Metz and Nancy and if one is hosting a TdF stage the other will have to be included, hence the start at Tomblaine. This has its roots in the region's influence in the wars including Franco Prussian, World War I and Word War II. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metz

I started riding in Lille and rode to Tournai for the finish of stage 2 won by Cavendish. Then I rode to Orchies and saw the early part of stage 3 outiside of town. Next rode to Saint Quentin to see the finish. I took a train to Metz to see the finish the next day. 

I saw Peter Sagan winning stage 6 in Metz from inside the 25 meter line. The place erupts when the race arrives.














































Ciao!


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## cda 455 (Aug 9, 2010)

I.

Hate.

You  .
























Just kidding  !


Sounds like an awesome trip/adventure!

And thanks for sharing the awesome pics! I really like the '4:00 O'Clock' angle shots. It really shows the gaps/depth of the sprint finish.


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## flyrunride (May 2, 2012)

Whoa!!! One of those things I'd wanna do before I croak....:thumbsup: I am envious  :idea: Oh now gotta save up some $$$ hahaha


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## Oldteen (Sep 7, 2005)

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's French cycling trip.


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## Shaba (Mar 16, 2011)

So cool! More pics please!


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## Mapei (Feb 3, 2004)

Great time!


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Bonjour from Besançon. I've been enjoying spending time with people in Metz and Nancy. The tour however has gone on without me in Tomblaine and Besançon. I met an American couple in Nancy and they invited me for lunch on their canal boat. They've done many boat and cycling trips in Europe. I still wanted to visit the cities the tour was in. The cities are all amazingly beautiful and I will post some more photos of them later.

Etape 3 outside of Orchies

Breakaway group. They stayed away much of the stage but were caught in the last few kilometers IIRC.










Peloton





































Etape 5 Saint Quentin. At about 200 meters from the finish. I made a video of the sprint that I will post later.





































He looked at me and was clearly not happy. Caught in a crash and bloodied. Still, I would like to have the talent to be in his place.












.


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## OhSnap (Jun 21, 2012)

Great pics--thanks


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## Taos Biker (May 27, 2008)

It looks as if Mr. Cav is growling right at you!
What a great trip.
Next year in Paris!


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## tazzmacd (Feb 24, 2012)

Thanks for sharing!! My Number 1 thing to do on the bucket list


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## smcnees (Aug 5, 2008)

Wife and I are flying there on Saturday from Seattle to follow the last week. Needless to say, I'm not getting much done at work. Threads like this do not help either. :thumbsup:


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## MoonHowl (Oct 5, 2008)

Great photos!!! Keep them coming; you are bringing all of us there with you


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

I took a train to Albertville. I will ride up the Col de la Madeleine. A friend from France recommended the Col de la Croix de Fer. He would have to recommend it. It's twice as far and the Madeleine is in between. 

A few from Besançon.

Citadel


















































































I will start the Etape 11 route Wednesday.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Starting in Albertville I met two friends at the bottom of the Col de la Madeleine and we rode up the Col. I knew they were in the area and I recommended they rent touring bikes for the Alps but I didn't know I would see them that morning. They continued to Saint Jean de Maurienne and I rode up Col du Glandon continuing along the stage 11 route. It was a difficult stage and I thought the time gaps would be significant. 

Col du Glandon



























I translated his German as "HTFU."









On the climb to Col de la Croix de Fer









Col de la Croix de Fer



























She barked when I showed her her photo.



























Lead break arrives


















Followed soon by Maillot Jaune group


















It gets hectic fast with the MJ peleton.




































Last but not least over the Col de la Croix de Fer with one teammate.


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## tazzmacd (Feb 24, 2012)

Great Pic's, thanks for sharing!!


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## Nimitz (Jul 8, 2004)

fantastic.

what camera/lens setup are you using?

extremely jealous, mind if I ask roughly what the trip has cost you?

Chad


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## Nimitz (Jul 8, 2004)

how did you organize where you would go/be, did you use a "tour guide" service I have seen advertised?

Chad


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## tazzmacd (Feb 24, 2012)

just one more question, are you camping along the way or are you staying in hotels?


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## elessarcif (Mar 12, 2011)

I am really jealous. I just spent the last week in Paris on business but couldnt get out of the city at all. I really wanted to get to a few stages. I was lucky enough last year to be able to ride some portions of a couple stages.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

More from Col de la Croix de Fer










Orienteers from New Zealand and Australia. They ran up to the Col from the last town and down at the end of the day. 




























Caravan arrives




























TV crew arrives followed by an inquiry.










Lead riders were hammering hard to the Col





































The descent


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Climbing Col de la Madeleine I met up with some friends.




























Wild strawberry. Amazing flavor.














































I could hear his bagpipes for about 20 minutes while riding up the col. Great sound. He is in fact from Scotland and has the thick accent to prove it. He was fun to talk with.










Friends in high places


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## juno (Jul 18, 2008)

Damn! 

Great pics! That is a great trip!


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

niiiiiice


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## stuartog11 (Aug 1, 2011)

Wow thats some great shots, Thanks for sharing. My wife and I are going to celebrate our 20th anniversary in france next year, Hopefully I will be able to catch a few stages.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

I then rode into Saint Jean de Maurienne to see the stage 12 start.....and missed it by an hour or so. Ooops. I didn't realize it started about 11 am and it took me longer to get there than I planned. I saw my friends again so that was fun. I met a guy who said he was at the Garmin bus during the warmup and Christian Vande Velde came over to talk with him and was very friendly. He was happy and enjoyed the start because it is a rare chance to meet the racers. 

I considered riding over more Cols in the Alps to return to Toulouse but I decided to take a train instead. In order to get my bike on the train I had to go to Lyon. In Lyon there there were few options so I went to Grenoble for the evening. The next day I was able to board a train to Paris and then to Toulouse.

Grenoble in the morning. Fête Nationale.










Fête Nationale celebrations being watched in a bar near Gare de Lyon.










Fireworks in Toulouse




























Public bikes!


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

In Toulouse I met someone who was going to see the stage 14 finish in Foix. It was just an hour train ride away and less than 10 euros. I decided to join her. It turned out to be a great day.

Foix is a beautiful town and, after walking to the finish line area to check things out, we found a scenic spot on a bridge at the last turn about 250 meters from the finish. It was about noon and we just had to wait a few hours. We met another American guy and had a fun time talking. 

Castle in Foix



















Finish line at about noon.










Sponsor entertainment in the finishing area during the day.




























View from the finish area standing spot. The race enters town along the road.



















Caravan arrives


















































































As a bonus we could see the race on the big tv. A narrow section of mountain road.










Fans get blasted.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

It was an exciting race that day with a breakaway group and then Luis León Sánchez of Spain attacked the break with about 10 kilometers to go. He rode into town solo for his fourth career TdF stage win.

He celebrates while entering town.



















Checks behind.










Smiles




























Rides to the finish




























Breakaway group arrives




























Peleton arrives























































She shoots film! Her family is also big into cycling and the TdF.



















After the race we took the train back to Toulouse.










Walking around Toulouse with a polka dot hat and big green foam hands was more fun than I expected. It's a good icebreaker and people would ask me about the day. I high fived another guy with a green hand. He is from Japan and in town for a microbiology conference. He was able to see the stage finish in Foix.

We went to my favorite restaurant in Toulouse La Faim Des Haricots (The Hunger of the Beans). It's an all you can eat vegetarian buffet. The waitress remembered me from before and knew I was cycling. She joked that if I was hungry I was not allowed to eat there.


https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/...ns-avoids-chaos-as-tacks-are-thrown.html?_r=1


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## FlandersFields (Jul 16, 2010)

Great pictures! Must have been an exciting time. I hope you didn't have to take al your luggage on the Madeleine!

Must say, American backpackers are mostly kind and relaxed people. They don't live up to their stereotype. 

Regards.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Okay I still have more stories and photos to post, especially from cities I visited. I will start from closer to the beginning of the trip. 

In Toulouse to pick up my bicycle. 



















Through Paris via train



















Train to Lille. Beautiful city.





































Public bikes!










After breakfast I started cycling over toward Belgium and Tournai for the stage 2 finish.

Tournai, near the finish.


















I met up with some guys from Germany following the tour. They were bicycle messengers. We watched the race from a grassy hill near the finish line. I ended up riding with them for a day.










After the finish, Cavendish won the sprint, we cycled toward Orchies for the stage 3 start. 




























I have never seen this before, pain from a vending machine. We were looking for breakfast food before heading out of town near the start of stage 3.










After seeing the breakaway and the peloton pass on stage 3 we kept riding with the goal being Metz. We tried to find a pub to watch the finish of the race in the afternoon. It turned out to be not so easy. Fist pub didn't have a tv, second pub was closed, and the third pub was owned by PMU, the sponsor of the Green Jersey and TdF sprints. They only showed horse racing. And I thought they sponsored the TdF due to their love of cycling. A little bit of my naivety died that day. We eventually found a fine pub in the beautiful city of Cambrai. 



















I decided to ride to Saint-Quentin to see the finish and then take a train to Metz for the finish.




























Entering Saint-Quentin.


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## Shaba (Mar 16, 2011)

Wow, what a great experience for you-and thanks for sharing it with us. Please post more if you have them. It's great to see all the things you don't see during tv coverage.


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## brianb21 (Jul 21, 2010)

That is fantastic thank you for sharing that! I would love to do that someday!


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Thanks! Here are a few more from the caravan on stage 3 outside of Orchies. Memorable moments include getting hit downtown with a bag of Madeleine muffins tossed from a muffinmobile moving at 50 km/h. Another beautiful day in the French countryside. 

C'est si bon!


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

One of the guys from Germany has cycled with Le Tour a few previous times. He likes to ride as much as possible and minimize the number of train rides he takes. He even bikes over from Germany when the tour starts in eastern France. One year he found an abandoned kitten in a field. It was meowing and scared. He put it in his handlebar basket to give it a safe place to be and rode with it a thousand or so more kilometers following the tour along and back to Germany. Now it lives with him at home. He would meet many people along the way during the tour. He said people who might at first be distant when he first met them would warm and melt at the sight of the kitten. It helped him get to know people better.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

I rode into Saint-Quentin to see the Stage 5 finish. I arrived in town hours before the caravan and found a good spot about 200 meters before the finish. I spent the time talking with others from around the world in France to see the tour.










Caravan arrives.









































































The racers arrived. The photos of the Stage 5 finish are above. After the race I walked around Saint-Quentin's town center.










There was a beach placed in the town center.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Then I took a train to Metz. Metz is a lively and fun city.





































Cathedral


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

More from Metz! 




























In the days and evenings there were performances in central Metz.










My hosts in Metz met up with other friends in the evenings and we went out dancing.

This MC was calling out the dancing using old French and was said to be brilliant.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

I cycled from Metz to Nancy.

The center of Nancy has a beautiful plaza named Place Stanislas, built in the 1750's by Stanislaw I Leszczyński, former King of Poland and father in law to King Louis XV of France.










Statue of Stanislaw Leszczyński placed in 1831. The original statue of Louis XV was removed during the revolution.




























Tram by STAN. Public transit in Nancy contrasting past and future. There are many pedestrain boulevards and plazas in Nancy and many people on bicycles.


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## Cinelli 82220 (Dec 2, 2010)

This is an awesome thread! I love it!


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Thanks! I'm glad people are enjoying the photos and tour report.

A few more from outside Albertville. An early morning start for a long day of climbing.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Toulouse in the evening. It has great energy and life in public spaces.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

Here are a few more from the rides between towns.

In Lille










Between Lille, France and Tournai, Belgium.



















Near the finish line in Tournai.










Canals are often scenic, car free ways of riding between towns in France. Outside of Orchies.


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

By Cambrai.




























Lyon










Grenoble


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## Art853 (May 30, 2003)

One more I like from early morning in Grenoble.










It is wonderful to experience these public spaces in the center of European cities. It's also great that people have the freedom to gather and socialize in these spaces and parks at night.


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