July 9th 2010
Written on the side of the road near Viry; close to St Claude near the Swiss border.
It has been a busy few days, driving through the countryside and following the Tour de France. The scenery is very beautiful; we have driven through forested hills, cultivated farmland, crops high and ready to harvest. Fields of Sunflowers, rows of vineyards, quaint villages and larger more modern towns. We never know what we will see around the next corner and we find that France has some of the best roads in Europe which makes our journey so much easier.
It’s is Friday now and the middle of the afternoon and we have parked on the side of the road in a hill climb stage of the Tour de France. To get a good position you need to park yourself the day before, and a lot of the people up at the top of the hill were here last night. It’s very warm and sunny but we have a good spot in the shade with grass all around and a good view around a corner then in the other direction is a straight section. Now what we have been up to??
We left Holland on Sunday morning early with [cousins] Martin & Ewoud traveling with us in Ewoud’s car. We tried to find a good spot to see the Tour near the border of Belgium but found it difficult as many villages were blocked to set up for the race and we couldn’t drive through. We drove back into Holland and found a nice spot next to a forest area.
The Koala came out after being in hibernation for nearly a year. There were not many children around so we didn’t give out many souvenir koalas on this stage. Left in the afternoon and found a spot near Wasseiges [Belgium] for the night.
Wasseiges was a great place to view the Tour. We were right at the front of a bend after a straight section coming out of the town. The Koala and the camper were very visible and we had a great view of the whole event. A great spot but as there weren’t many children we only gave away about 8 koalas. The weather has been good, warm and sometimes even hot.
That night we stayed in a caravan park near Huy [Belgium]. In the caravan park there were a mix of nationalities French, Belgians, Swede’s, Canadians, Luxembourgers, Dutch, New Zealanders and AustraliansStuart and Chantel who come from south of Perth near the Margaret river.
We exchanged Tour de France stories and Motor Home stories and wished them well in their travels [not realizing that we would meet again].
The facilities at the caravan park were basic but it was cheap and the people running it were friendly even though there English was very basic.
Our third stage of the tour was near a town called Spy on the side of the road near a cross road. We set up our flags on the camper and on the wall behind of a disused farm house. Being at the cross roads people from Spy drove their cars to the intersection and walked to find a good vantage point. There were heaps of kids there and the Koala was very busy that day giving out his small koalas. It was also a good place to see the race and Jenny even saw Cadel Evans ride close past. No easy feat when you see how fast they ride. There is a picture that Ewoud took with Cadel riding past Jenny [he has the striped jumper on].
After this stage we drove to Durbuy a place that we went with the whole family in 2000 and where Luke and Karen went on their trip to Europe. We stayed there overnight next to the river in a camping ground [very pleasant]. The next day we missed the Tour and stayed in Belgium, first to have a look around Durbuy and then we had a pleasant drive through the Ardennes. At about 1.30 we stopped for lunch and then said our goodbyes to Martin & Ewoud. They went north back to Holland and we went south to France for another stage of the tour.
We drove to Orbais-L’Abbaye and parked next to the road at the end of a small hill climb. We were the first ones there and had a good view of the road. By the time it was dark the place was full of campers [motor homes]. In the morning from 7.30 onwards the cars started to arrive, and then later people from the nearby village came walking up the hill. The place was packed and people from all over the world were there. A few groups of Australians were also there. We met up again with Stuart and Chantel and had a lovely time with them chatting as we waited for the event to start. I even roped Stuart in to help me [the Koala] give out koalas to the kids. There were more kids than koalas so we stopped when we gave out our supply, leaving a few for the next stage. After the race went by Chantel and Stuart were heading off to drive to Frankfurt for their flight the next day to Australia so we said our farewells and they kindly gave us some of their supplies which they had left over from their holiday in the motor home. This was a good fun stage as we got to talk to many people and the Koala was a great success. We decided to miss the next stage and head for the hills for a large steep hill climb section. But first we went shopping as our supplies were getting very low and we needed to stock up on some essentials (beer, wine, cheese etc) then we drove until 9.00 and slept in a quiet parking bay. In the morning we woke early and drove to where we are now. Here we will sleep over night and tomorrow about 4.30-5.00 the race will come past. On a big hill climb we have been told that to get a good spot you have to get here early so we have staked out our spot and wait for the spectacle.
