July 10 and 11 we headed to the Swiss/ France boarder to see stage 7 and 8 of the Tour de France. The first day we thought we were at the finish line in the town the internet site said it would end at for the day. There were lots of people in chairs along the road, a big screen tv going, booths... but as the finish time approached we realized things didn't seem quite right. It turns out the finish line was down the road further and none of the race was even due to go through the town. We were bummed but seeing the tour on the big screen was fun and the ice cream was good for the girls. We went searching for food after and one of the only restaurants open (at 6 pm, evidently still a French siesta time) was a Canadian Crepe and Hamburger joint. One waiter spoke a tiny bit of English and no one spoke German. Ted and I got the Hamburger and the girls got Crepe's. I asked if they had maple syrup at this Canadian restaurant but no one recognized the words of "maple syrup". So our Buffalo-Hamburgers were delivered to us in the traditional French way "tar-tar" meaning extremely raw but the outside was a little brown. I was disgusted and took them back to the guy grilling them on the outside patio and had to pantamine-please cook this longer. It was still a bit red when we got them the second time but I was hungry enough not to care. I know pregnant people aren't supposed to eat undercooked meat but sometimes the need for food out weighs the risks. The food was not very filling though and after we walked around the town a bit Ted decided he needed some pizza to hold him over for the night. The pizza menu was of coarse all in French. Ted randomly choose one which just so happened to have anchovies on it. We ate in the car due to a torrential down fall of rain. The car smelled horrible. On top of that we were heading back into Switzerland via an incredibly windey mountain pass. By the end of it, I had to toss my cookies (or make that pizza and semi-raw buffalo burger) over a side rail. What a memory!
We stayed at a wonderful Novotel in Lausanne. It wasn't our original plan but we headed back to France the second day to hopefully catch a glimpse of the "tour" as they passed. We waited with others in along side a road in a beautiful field a few minutes walk away from the French/Swiss boarder. I swear the pack was less than 20 people who passed us in a matter of seconds. So fast in fact that Ted couldn't even get a picture with his cell phone. I never even saw Lance Armstrong and no way did that many people like on the tv pass us. I just don't understand it. We weren't far from a U turn bend in the road and when the crowd started running we did to only to see some random bikers getting back up on their bikes. I'd like to think that was Lance's fatal crash that caused him to loose any chance of winning that year, and it happened moments away from me. If only we were standing there and had our other camera!!!
After that ever so brief viewing of men on bikes we headed back down the windey canyon and spent the day relaxing at a beach on Lake Lausanne. The water was wonderfully warm and clear. The girls had a great time splashing, swimming, finding rocks, and playing Frisbee.
Check out this website for some great pics of the 2010 Tour de France and picture us in one of those fields cheering for a whole 20 seconds as they passed.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/16/the-game-the-tour-de-france-2010/2341/
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