Today we journeyed down to Malaucene' last night to enjoy a little coffee (Sharon) and take in the scenery. It was crazy busy! It resembles an old time festival-- for my Oregon friends kind of like Turkey Rama in McMinnville. It is fun, festive, and there are all kinds of booths to buy goods.
This afternoon - in maybe an hour we will see the caravan pass by and they will be throwing more goodies to us on the side of the road. The riders will be making the climb to Mont Ventoux in another 3 hours probably. So, we still have some waiting to do.
In the meantime, I'll read, blog some more. I've been catching up on my book review blog. I have two more books to write up. Mark is chasing away jet lag-- catching some zzzz's in the shade on a sleeping bag. Sharon is reading, and Todd is on the mountaintop awaiting all the action. He should be there by now. He left a 2.5 hours ago. It is almost 12 miles long with a 10% grade much of the time. He will return tuckered out.
This area is so beautiful, the deeply forrested area is just stunning. So many old, old buildings that are so charming. Yesterday we found a little chapel from the 1314 - the Pope at the time was Clement V. Amazing!
Will insert pic of chapel
Later:
Soooooo, here's what you missed! If I didn't mention it before, when we get together with Mark and Sharon inevitably we laugh, a lot. Yesterday was simply hilarious; I can't do it justice, but I'll give you a small taste.
As mentioned earlier, we were working up a little excitement and anticipation of the cyclists rolling by on their way up the "geant of the Provence." Mark had walked down to town to watch them come through and Todd left in the morning to see the mountaintop finish. Well, we were expecting the caravan to come by at 2:40 and the riders around 4:30. Imagine our surprise when Mark came walking up. We thought it odd. It still didn't occur to me that anything was really wrong-- Todd had researched the routes and we had seen signs referring to the Tour, and ASSUMED we were on the route. Ruh, roh.
We were still excited and ready to cheer, we had cold water to give riders and a spritzer to spray them. At one point, I remember wondering why the trucks were parked on the road, but I just never considered that Todd had it wrong. He had prepped a notebook with all the routes and maps. It was inconceivable. Sharon wondered why we were alone on the road. I suggested that it was because everyone was on the mountaintop- Mont Ventoux is an epic, classic finish for the Tour. We sat and chatted until Mark came upon us and took pictures. He explained that we missed it! It went through on the other road through town. Mark had no way of reaching us nor did Todd-- they had the phones and Todd had no service. He had tried to come down to let us know but the road had been closed. lol It was pretty funny. Todd wondered why I didn't suspect that we were on the wrong road when the caravan didn't come by-- well, we had reasoned that away too. We figured that perhaps they didn't have the caravan every stage. I just told him that it should make him feel good that I trust him so implicitly. As for Sharon and I we just howled with laughter! I can now say I've seen all parts of a stage. There were all kinds of trucks that brings the caravan vehicles to the staging area. It is amazing to see what is entailed in the production of such an event as the Tour de France.
All was not lost, I did get an unexpected treat, on my way to the shower our former camp neighbors (the Germans) were set up in the area of the showers and have a tv with a satellite dish. I got to see Christopher Froome power his way up the final moments of the climb to the top of Mont Ventoux. Sweet! Froome is a BEAST. Quintana gave a good fight all day but just couldn't withstand the attack.
Pic
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