Days 44 to 47, Thursday 21 to Sunday 24 July

Thursday and Friday passed largely without notable incident, sadly; I spent a lot of them trying to write one particular art history paper that, for some reason, was just utterly unwilling to be born. Our group as a whole met up at a restaurant Thursday evening for a tres French farewell dinner, and I partook of goat cheese, some kind of bird and then alcoholic vanilla ice cream [bad translation, there] as everyone discussed where they were headed next. Quite a few were going to Barcelona, actually, one taking a weeklong Italy tour, another few staying in Paris for a while, and I got props for going to Dublin which, it occurs to me, is going to be colder there than here.

Saturday I walked around a lot. [this will be added on to later when I do the photos]

Sunday, today, I woke up, ate a Nutellawich, then headed off to the Champs Elysees. If you follow this link, that corner, just to the right of that purple-roofed bus, under one of the trees, is where I sat, and waited for a few hours, mostly reading, until the Tour came through.

the parade coming

a baguette car

this is after, when I'm just walking

you totally cannot see what's happening but I promised Tori a massive photo dump, so voila. This is looking down towards the Seine:

close-up: By craning my head, I could see the podium of the winners [between the post and the tree], a screen showing them [on the L], and the Petit Palais. You can't make it out here, but Evans, the Australian overall winner, just got his jersey:

yeah ...

and then the more exciting stuff, bits of the parade, then the very first time they came down the Champs towards me, then their backs, and I forget what the other video is, and I'm so, so tired and can't write any more, but I had a pretty great view, and it was fantastic:

Before I forget, I don't really expect to be using my computer in Ireland, so unless Something Happens, I'll next be in touch with everyone when I get into Philadelphia, where I'll turn my phone back on and let the relevant people know if everything is going on schedule with the flights :)