We were on our way to watch a sprint section of the Tour de France in Maussane-les-Alpilles. This is the 100^th year anniversary of the Tour and we had been contemplating watching one of the famous climbs such as the Alpe d'Huez or Mt. Ventoux and in the end, decided against it because we’d have to battle with the hordes of people to get up to the top. We had found a campsite which was on the route the riders were taking and were able to make a reservation for only a couple of nights. This worked out perfectly as we had access to washrooms as we waited for the riders and it also meant that we didn’t have to stay a minimum of one week, which most of the other campsites were requiring if you were making a reservation. On our way to the campsite, we had to pass through St-Remy, whose market we had enjoyed a couple weeks ago. As it was market day and we knew exactly where we could find parking, we decided to stop and check out the market once again. We had a quick wander through the market and picked up a few things including honey, melons and some olive-wood items. Maussane was only about 15 km away from St-Remy so we were there in time for a late lunch. That afternoon, we walked into town and out along the sprint section to scope out where we would like to hunker down the following day. It was a bit strange that there was absolutely no sign that the Tour was coming through the following day – not a single banner or poster or really anything for that matter. The town of Maussane itself was quite small and didn’t have a lot to look at but there were a couple neat fountains with attached wash-houses. We also saw a dovecote that seemed really out of place, or at least that’s what I think it was. The dovecote was on the side of a building in the main square and I couldn’t figure out why it was there. We returned to our campsite via a different route than the one we’d taken in and had a plan of attack for the following morning.

The following morning, we walked into town again to see if there were people setting up for the Tour, which was due to come through in about four hours. We saw the FranceTVSport truck setting up at the end of the sprint and the PMU trucks (sponsors for all sprint sections) were in place and the barriers were being put up. We picked up our bread from the boulangerie and went back to camp to get our things. We were out at the sprint finish line by about 10 am and found a spot to park ourselves for the next five hours – the riders were due in just before 2 pm. People were steadily coming in so we had thought it best to get there early and claim a spot with our camping chairs. It was definitely great not to have to stand for the entire time. The time passed by surprisingly quickly as we wandered around taking a few photos and just watching the general commotion. The farmers from the department had also setup a large display in the field behind us that said "Tour 100 – Agriculteurs 13". The “13” was the department number that we were in, the Bouches-du-Rhône. The words were being carefully spelled out with fruit and vegetables – nectarines, cucumbers, aubergines, melons and more over such a large area that it was sure to be picked up by the helicopters providing air coverage for the Tour. The farmers were also selling produce for all the spectators and when the British couple standing beside us returned with some juicy apricots, we did the same shortly thereafter. It was great to be able to zip back to the campsite to use the washrooms and not lose our spot. By around 12:45, the first of the caravan started going past. The caravan is made up of all the sponsors’ vehicles and is basically a parade at high speed, with the vehicles zipping past at around 25-30 km/h. The caravan stays about 2 hours ahead of the lead riders and is responsible for all the SWAG. There’s a lot of excitement as the caravan comes through because people know that free stuff is going to be thrown out. Although most of this stuff is pretty useless (ranging from 2 Euros towards your next gamble online courtesy of PMU, mini-saucissons, madeleines, Haribo candy to laundry detergent packets), everyone near the finish line scored a bright green polyester shirt, a green baseball cap and green foam “hands”. The sponsor’s colour is green and the leader of the sprints wears a green jersey. So the marketing ploy behind all this is that everyone at the finish is decked out in the sponsor’s colours and wearing shirts and caps bearing the sponsor’s logo so that their name appears prominently as the cameras sweep through the finish line ahead of the riders. Nonetheless, it was still fun to get some free stuff and I soon figured out that if I stood partially in the ditch behind us, I would be able to catch the items as they were tossed at us at high speed and beat all the others to it. At one point, I glanced across the road just in time to see a lady get hit in the head by a flying packet of saucissons, in the split second that she had turned her attention away from the road. This “parade” of sponsor vehicles, some more elaborately done up than others, lasted for about an hour. The parade vehicles usually had inflatable mascots (Mickey Mouse – apparently Mickey is a sponsor of the tour, too, the Haribo candy girl and dog, on top of their vehicles and/or people strapped in a safety harness that were pretending to be super-excited and dancing to the loud music blaring from the vehicles. I’m not sure how one gets excited about laundry detergent.

As representatives of Canada, Megs had stitched large Canadian flags onto the front of our baseball caps. They were quite prominent when compared to the little Canadian flag luggage tags we had waved around at the Olympics when cheering on the tri-athletes. When the caravan had passed through, we had accumulated quite a collection of freebies. About an hour later, the support vehicles started coming by and we knew the riders were getting close. There was a very large sponsor semi-truck setup with stage and speakers nearby that was announcing all the details about when the riders were expected. We soon after saw the six or so helicopters circle overhead and land in a nearby field and we knew that they must be getting really close. I was leaning over the railings and had the camera setup at a good angle to capture the riders crossing the finish line. We saw the riders come around the corner at the 200 m mark and I hit the record button. Within what seemed like only seconds, the first riders were already across. I couldn’t even tell you what colour jersey the winning rider was wearing because they were going so fast. The peloton must have only been about ten of fifteen seconds behind the leaders and they went by in a blur, too. After the first riders had crossed, I glanced down at the camera just in time to catch a warning message flash across the screen “Camera overheated - shutting down to prevent damage to circuitry”! And with that, the camera just turned off and I missed getting the peloton coming across the finish. I guess the camera couldn’t really handle being in the 30+ degree heat in the direct sun. I was definitely more than a bit alarmed and was worried I might have wrecked the camera. I quickly switched it on to photo mode and thankfully, it came back on. We had no time to spot any of the special jerseys, let alone get pictures of them. And just like that, it was over and all the spectators started dispersing. It was a bit anti-climactic because it had all happened so quickly but still quite exciting to see them zip by. We walked back to camp after that and caught the end of that day’s stage on the television in the common room. The riders were averaging about 45 km/hr that day so they must have been going probably a good 10 km/hr faster than that on the sprint section! It’s no wonder that it was all a bit of a blur. It had been an eventful day and we were really glad that we’d been able to catch a glimpse of the Tour in person. As one of our good friends said to us via email, “How often do you get to watch the Summer Olympics in London, the cows returning from the Swiss Alps and the 100^th Tour de France all in one year?!”