Stage 13 - All Set & Ready to Spectate

Bonjour Friends & Family,

It's a beautiful day, clear blue skies, nice breeze and temperatures that must be in the 70s. We have set up at our "camp" for stage 13 and are ready to watch some bikes (in about four hours times). While we had hoped to position ourselves on the final 4th category climb of the day, but it wasn't very appealing after we drove over it, so we decided to keep going and find something a little less crowded and more comfortable. Our choice, somewhere on the road to Nimes in the middle of a few vineyards.

It took us about two hours or so to get to our location. For one, we were trying to find a spot not on many maps (well, at least not on ours) and second, we stopped for café, groceries and gazole (a.k.a. diesel).

At the supermarché this morning we picked up food for lunch, a bucket, and some ice to cool the Orangina (and cans of Leffe and bottle of rosé ). Unfortunately, we lost a can of Leffe in the grocery store parking lot when it tipped over and exploded. So for now, our Perrier is chilling' and so is our camembert to the sounds of the Provencial cicadas.

Locating the ideal spectating spot is part art and part science. You need to find a place where the cyclists won't just fly by (after sitting alongside the road for five hours you want to at least see them for a minute), while at the same time shade, a secluded place to use the restroom and someplace not overrun with other spectators -- unless you plan to catch the race in the mountains or feed station there should be about 100km from which to choose -- are a few other factors to consider. We found a great spot, but you never know if your exclusive find will draw others to your space. And for today, it has. We're keeping our fingers crossed that they'll close down the road soon so people will stop showing up. One bonus of having neighbors though, the sponsor caravan often slows when more people are on the roadside together.

From where we are sitting (hopefully we'll be able to upload the video soon), I'm looking at vineyards with mountains in the background. There are itchy weeds around our car and I'm sure some type of poison something. If we were in the States this would just be called parking your car in a farm field and sitting alongside the country road. In France, it's called picnicking at the Tour de France, one of the most exciting spectacles in all of Sport!