Le Tour de France; Day in Paris; Bruges, Belgium

Sunday, July 25 - Le Tour de France: Final Stage, Champs Elysees

On Sunday morning we left Basel, a small city bordering France, Germany and Switzerland for a 3.5 hour train ride to Paris. We arrived into Paris, jumped on the metro train and headed for the final stage of the Tour de France. Once on the Grand Boulevard- Champs Elysees (translates to Elysian Fields or literally Field of Gods), we and thousands of other fans began looking for the best spot to watch the Tour.

Within a half hour we befriended a group of 20-25 Norwegians who welcomed us to join them next to their spot on the rail. With Heineken beers in hand, sporting Norwegian colors and holding their country’s flag, we joined the lively and fun bunch and waited with them for the next 5 hours until the riders (by the way, most of the Norwegians had been there since 9:00 am, and we arrived at just before noon.)

After hours of standing and waiting, the riders finally arrived onto the Champs Elysees. Situated 200-300 yards from the finish line and a half mile from the Arc de Triomphe, we were finally fulfilling our dream of watching a stage of the Tour de France. As the riders raced by, we tried focusing on our favorites finding it almost dizzying trying to see each of them.

After 8 laps with the crowd cheering and the cameras snapping, Mark Cavendish took the final stage with an amazing sprint finish. Then, the final ceremony to crown the Tour winners: best sprinter, best climber, best young rider, most aggressive, best team and finally, the top (3) finishers headed to the podium – the Tour winner, Alberto Contador; second place Andy Schleck, and third Dennis Menchov.

After the ceremony, the crowds started to disperse and Ad and I decided to head to our hotel. On our way we noticed many spectators lining the course were not leaving. We then noticed Tour teams, their team car and coaches slowly bikimg a final lap on the Champs Elysees to greet the crowd, sign autographs and take pictures with their fans. This is where we got some incredible photos, cheered on our favorite riders and Adam yelling “Boulder, Boulder” to Team Garmin who smiled, laughed and cheered back to him.

(CLICK ON LE TOUR DE FRANCE TO THE RIGHT FOR PHOTOS)

Monday, July 27 - A Day in Paris

On Monday morning, Adam and I began our day at a local bakery (patisserie) for a chocolate croissant and a café o lait. With our backpacks we walked around Paris, an elegant and cultural touchstone for art, fashion and food. Our first stop, photos of the Arc de Triomphe, Europe’s grandest arch and intended to honor Napoleon’s soldiers and victory at the battle of Austerlitz. Under the arch is also France’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Every day at 6:30 pm since after WWI, the flame is lit and flowers are put in place of patriotic reverence.

Our next stop in Paris was the Eiffel Tower, nicknamed Le dame de fer, or Iron Woman. As the most recognizable structure in the world, the tallest building in Paris and the most paid visited monument in the world, the Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel as the entrance arch for the World's Fair in 1889.

Next, the Grand Palais (or the Great Palace) and Petit Palais, are two historic buildings built in 1897 for the World’s Fair in 1990. These gorgeous buildings are situated along the Seine River (pronounced “Sane” River) and took only 3 years to build and serves as a historic site, exhibition hall and museum hall located on the Champs Elysees.

Walking from the Great Palace we made our way to the Louvre Museum. Situated just off the Seine River, the Louvre is one of largest and most visited museums and historic to Paris. As we made our way to enter the “cue” of people waiting to enter the museum, we noticed buses pulling up to the entrance and dropping tourists off to visit the Louvre. So, we decided to opt out of the tour and headed over to the Notre Dame Cathedral to enjoy a more peaceful and quiet experience.

Notre Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris) or the Notre Dame Cathedral, is a gothic catholic cathedral containing the official chair of the Archbishop of Paris and considered one of the finest and first examples of French Gothic architecture. As I toured the Cathedral, it was emotional to experience both its spiritual and artistic beauty as well as understand it as a place and source for all life.

Our next stop, the Paris train station for our 2.5 hour trip to Bruges, Belgium.

Tuesday, July 27 – Bruges, Belgium

The town of Bruges (pronounced broozh) is in the Flemish region of Belgium and located northwest of Brussels and roughly 30 miles from the North Sea. This charming Old World town (population of just over 100K) is filled with water canals, a 13th-century belfry or bell tower, museums, churches, cyclists riding through the cobblestone streets, Belgian chocolate shops and Ad’s favorite, Belgian beers! One of the landmarks of this town is the Michelangelo Madonna and Child statue, said to be the only stature of his to leave Italy in his lifetime

We enjoyed a day of eating Belgian food such as Flemish Beef Stew, fresh mussels, Belgian beers and a few pralines from a local chocolate shop (Bruggians are connoisseurs of chocolate). We toured around enjoying the many beautiful views of the town, its architecture and the casual lifestyle that Bruges offers a tourist.

[Adam here]-We also went on a Belgium beer tour which was the highlight of my Belgium experience. De Halve Maan (The Half Moon) brewery was awesome! We learned that there are 135 total brewers in Belgium; 748 different brands and 120 different styles of beer! The tour was very informative and a tasty brew was included in the cheap tour price of $5.50 euro. We enjoyed a few more different belgium gems after the tour before heading out for dinner of mussels and frites (did I mention Belgium beers are the best in the world?  Don't even try to tell me otherwise because NOTHING compares, nothing!)

(CLICK ON RIGHT FOR PHOTOS OF BRUGES, BELGIUM)