I saw the end of the Tour de France live today and it was spectacular.
The race didn’t start until nearly 5:00 PM local time today so I had plenty of time to catch up on sleep (which I did by sleeping until 10 am) and relax before heading out to watch the Tour.
Pokemon Go started an event today and released the first Legendary Pokemon (Articuno and Lugia) as raid battle targets, so I tried my hand at the first one I saw, and I failed. And I failed again, and again, but it was still fun and it wasn’t even noon yet!
But time started to pass quickly as I started packing and changing outfits for the day. And eventually it became half passed 3. So I asked my dad if he wanted to head out to grab some lunch on our way to the Champs-Élysées where the Tour would do 8 laps before concluding for the year.
Our hotel, the Holiday Inn Paris Opera – Grands Blvd, is directly outside of a metro station. Literally, outside the door are the stairs leading into the metro station.
We hopped on Line 8 which took us to Line 1 which should have dropped us off at the Champs-Élysées, but that stop was skipped because of the Tour so we got off at the next stop.
This worked out in our favor because we were situated next to a bridge the riders crossed over right before heading to the Champs-Élysées, which was right after they came over a bridge just far enough away we could see them in the distance before they whizzed passed us.
Many people walked from the first vantage point to the Champs-Élysées; my dad and I walked to the Franklin D Roosevelt circle not far from our original spot which allowed us to see the riders ride towards and away from the Arc de Triomphe (which we will be visiting and entering in 23 hours).
Given the 8 laps the riders made along the same road, this meant spectators at the Champs-Élysées could see the riders zoom by 16 times if they arrived at the Avenue early enough. My dad and I, however, were not there so we missed a couple laps and a few of the potential video/photo ops.
But 10 times was plenty for the riders passing by us, and I got plenty of video footage on my cameras, and my dad shot numerous (a few hundred) photos.
Alas, the race ended around 7:15 PM and we had to head out with the rest of the thousands of spectators.
As for the experience, it was great.
Seeing the best of the best (at least those still in the ride after crashes and what not) live, in person, at the most famous bike race in modern history was exceptional. I would gladly visit next year, and even make it an annual tradition.
The only thing which would make watching the Tour live any better would have been getting a signature or meet & greet with the riders. I’ll just have to wait and see how things go in the next few years to see if my dream comes true.
