July 18th - Le Tour

Today we made our first drive of any length, from Nice to Marseille. We missed the first entrance on to the highway and were driving in circles somewhere near Cannes. We ended up driving into a flea market in a parking lot and feared we'd be trapped there because the road in was so narrow. We made it out and found our way to the highway, but not before I tried to turn down a walkway. A nice looking couple almost had to dive for cover - imagine Bourne Identity when he drove the mini down the stairs. I was surprised to see our car could make it up to 130 but it certainly took a while. I decided that the problem is its automatic transmission isn't very good. (Stop worrying mom, it was KPH not MPH)

It was a 2.5 hour drive total, with some hefty toll prices - 15 Euros! The country side actually looked like some parts of California, dry bushes with jagged rocks. We got in to Marseille and got completely lost trying to find the hotel. We think we figured out the problem: Google directions give insane detail and roads here don't have signs. Also, I think the directions stink. But we found the hotel just before they closed the road for the Tour, so that worked out really well.

The hotel is pretty sweet, it's actually a long term residence hotel so we have a living room, separate bedroom, mini kitchen and huge balcony. Alas, no bidet :( After grabbing the usual cafe lunch, we went down to the finish line to check out the race. It was really crowded, but it was great seeing all the huge team buses and fancy road bikes. The crowds were so big that we focused on setting up near a big screen so we could watch the race and still catch a glimpse of the bunch sprint at the end.

There was a 12 man break away that was whittled down to 5 with about 30 km left and it came down to them speeding past us at 55kph+ at the 150m to go mark. A Frenchman won, so everyone was happy. Our boy Jens Voigt of team CSC finished last of the 5, but we still like him. Unfortunately, when I tried to snap a picture of the peloton when they zoomed by 10 minutes later, I pressed the off button instead of the picture button. By the time I turned it back on, the peloton had already passed so I just got shots of a few stragglers.

We went to check out the team buses again, but they had pretty much packed up with only a few menacing Russians outside the Discovery bus. Not Maxim the silent killer menacing, more a beat you up menacing. We ogled some bikes and then headed back to the hotel.

Tonight we headed to downtown Marseille (the harbor area), but I don't have anything nice to say so I won't say anything at all. Tomorrow we head up to the French Alps to get ready for our ride up the famous l'Alpe D'Huez on Friday.