I’ve spent the last few days in France going to a work thing before travelling on to watch the Tour De France with Saturday’s time trial in Rennes.
I travelled via Paris, and got a TGV from Montparnasse station. Here’s something I didn’t know about TGVs. I thought that their layout was pretty much the same as trains the world over. Outside of first class, pairs of seats together and the occassional two seats facing two. But when I examined my ticket, it looked as though I was in first class. I knew that this was unlikely, unless the late change I’d made to my ticket had necessitated an upgrade. I even asked a guard who laughed at the suggestion, pointing out the price I’d paid.
It turns out that there’s a little “salle” just next to the engine and adjacent to first class. It seats eight in four facing four configuration with seats backed against the window as you look across the carriage. The seats are certainly larger than the normal second class ones, and if you were travelling in a group of eight, the area would be perfect. It’s a little strange if you’re not with little to look at but your fellow travellers: the couple snoozing together, the man who fancies the woman across the way and can’t stop looking at her after he’s got her attention, the couple who whisper very very quietly.
On Saturday we headed out to a position a little way into that day’s stage of the race. The riders were going off at around one minute intervals, and I was using that day’s L’Equipe to work out who was arriving when. It didn’t help that L’Equipe had printed the data for the wrong stage, but I was able to make do.








That evening, the Tall Ships Race was in St Malo, so I took a few photos:






On Sunday, we were planning to catch the next stage of the Tour, but since France was in the World Cup final, we decided that it was sensible to drive 450km to Paris to watch the final there. The thinking being that if they won, the party on the Champs Elysées would be unmissable.
Paris was up for a party:
(Look at the shirts hanging as a tricolore… Clever huh? Well they don’t seem to go for the little flags on cars in France)
But, as we all know, they lost. I captured the moment in a bar full of people who knew less about football than any gathering I’ve ever come across. This lady, did realise they’d lost though.