Day 17

This may seem more like a tidbits section. I'll skip around a bit because there is so much to share and tell.

Arrival in Paris...

Paris is huge, really huge. I have no idea of the actual size, but it wears to me like New York x10. The bike tour still had my bike and we were traveling separate from the tour group. We had to drop the car off at Orly airport and we were staying in a different hotel from the tour group. We had Ms Garmin to guide us, but the size of the city intimidated me a bit with this logistical challenge. Goodwill to the rescue. While on the way to Paris the man in charge of logistics for the tour group, his name is Wim, phoned me on my mobile. He made an offer I couldn't refuse. He said he had my bike and bike box with him. He'd meet me at Orly with his van, pick up me, the fam and our luggage and take us to our hotel. I said, but of course, thank you. What did I do to deserve this kind treatment? Two days prior, the fam and I decided to vector away from the group, Wim was joking with the tour group about riding the time trial course. No one took him very seriously. He had no bike, shoes or helmet. When he and I were sharing a beer, I indicated that if he were serious about riding, he could use my bike and gear as I planned to spend the rest of the trip with the fam. He was very happy. He said he would take care of everything and I'd see him in Paris. So, while I believed I'd face a logistical hurdle in Paris, Wim came through. He phoned me on the way to Paris to make his very generous offer and said that the bike rode extremely well. Thank you to Wim and to Ms Veritas, who keeps providing great dividends.

Hotel...

The hotel in Paris is awesome. It is a 4 star hotel two blocks from the Arc de Triomphe. We are on the 7th floor with a small balcony you access through what is effectively an over sized window. The view out the window is largely southern facing. As a result, we have a pretty good view, hell let’s face it, a great view of the Eifel Tower. Pretty incredible sight at night all lit up. The room is spacious, particularly for Paris standards, well appointed and generally pretty posh. The bell hops are all uniformly dressed and appear to have a bit of a pecking order or rank among them. It was pretty funny to see us come barreling in with 3 oversized duffels, 3 pack packs, a computer back pack, a bike and a bike case. I asked the head bell hop if I could dissemble and pack my bike some place out of the way of his customers (again, using my best French). He pointed to an area of the lobby that was uncongested, but still extremely nice. The floor was marble covered nearly 80% by a pretty nice looking piece of carpet or high end rug. I shrugged and said ok, dragged the bike, bike box and back pack of tools to the area and went to work. I had some packing wrap for the frame in the box. I laid it on this nice rug to protect it and put the bike on the wrap. I had the entire bike apart, in the box and closed within about 7-10 minutes. The Bell hops were impressed and watch me the entire time. I couldn't tell if they were truly interested or concerned like hell I'd ruin the carpet, damage the marble or one of the nice, cloth covered chairs. But, Ms Veritas was neatly pack and put into hotel storage until we leave for home on Weds.

The prices...

As nice as the city is and as pretty as the views may be, the prices are astronomical. The typical price for a can of Coke at the restaurants is 5-6 Euro. With the dollar hovering around 1.7 on the exchange rate, this is one hell of an expensive Coke. The breakfasts, which typically consist of coffee, a couple of croissants, some spreads and maybe juice runs about 12 Euro, multiple by 1.7 to get the US dollar equivalent. For many reasons, I can't wait to get back to the States.

Two scoops of meconium please…

I love chocolate, dark chocolate in particular. I like chocolate in the form of ice cream the best. Last night, after the race, while walking around Paris, we came upon this ice cream parlor. Among all the flavors, they had a tub of dark, nearly black, tar-like tub of something in the cooler. It looked like meconium. For the uninitiated, meconium is the term for an infants first pooh. It is very dark and tar-like in its appearance. For some reason, this tub of meconium looking ice cream was calling my name. Two scoops I said, in my best French. It was awesome.

The race...

On the final day of the Tour, the last race starts outside Paris and hits the city with 52 km remaining. The final kilometers of the race are 8 laps around a 5.4 km circuit in the city. The primary boulevard used for this is the Champs Elysees. We were situated in the grand stands approximately 150 meters from the finish line, great seats. We arrived early, which was good and bad. The bad part was we sat in the stands for nearly 4 hours prior to the arrival of the riders. The good part was we were in the shade of the trees from the afternoon sun and heat. And, boy, was it hot. The riders rolled into town with a huge ovation, the CSC train all pulling on the front. The CSC train tried to maintain order through the 8 laps, but it was tough. Several riders tried to go off the front for glory, but the CSC train pulled them back in. Why, you may ask, to keep their rider safe. If the pace remains high, very high, there is less likely of a bunch up and accidents. Folks are strung out nearly single file simply following wheels. The tactic is to deliver Carlos Sastre in the Yellow Jersey safely over the final finish of the 21 stages. If Sastre had an accident, it would be all too easy to gain the one minute separating him from the second place riders. Folks would likely slow to allow him to recover; part of the gentlemanly nature of the sport. But, not worth risking. So, keep the pace way high and prevent accidents resulting from a gaggle of riders getting too twitchy. It worked. With the final 2 km to go, the CSC train pulled off and allowed the sprint to take full force. The final sprint reached nearly 70 km on a slight uphill grade. This is nearly 37 mph on a bike, slightly uphill. Awesome power and speed. The Champs Elysees is cobbled. The riding is rough, very rough. Jens Voigt, a CSC rider, lost his seat with 3-4 km to go. He finished the stage nearly last, having the stand the final 3-4 km. The crowd gave him a big roar when he rolled over the finish line.

The Race in Paris...

It's hard to describe this race to people unfamiliar with cycling. The best I can do is try to paint an analogy. The Champs Elysees is like combining Park Ave and Madison Ave from New York into one. It is the marketing and shopping epicenter with the prominence of Park Ave. Park Ave is also a boulevard style avenue versus other avenues in NYC. So imagine shutting down Park Ave from the Helmsley Building, around 42nd street, up to around 97th, North end of Central Park, both ways. At 97th, you loop around and head back down Park on the South bound side. To loop around the South side of the route, imagine closing 42nd all the way over to Broadway and then come back East on like 39th to head back North on Park. Now it will be a little tricky because the Helmsley Building pretty well blocks all of Park going N/S as Grand Central Station is located there. Nevertheless, you find a way through all this and CLOSE all the streets to do it. Then, within about 3 hours of completing the race, everything is gone and traffic is once again back to normal. That's how important this race is to France and Paris. Pretty cool stuff.