Cycling in Paris Part 1

CYCLING WITH ARMSTRONG, ULLRICH, AND HAMILTON WITH A BIT OF THE RHINE THROWN IN
FOR GOOD MEASURE
By Helen Simmons

Back in the dim and distant recesses of late Spring I heard, via the Internet,
that as this year was the centenary year of the Tour de France and, on the
final day, the organisers were holding a special Randonnée du Centenaire. This
would be where members of the public could ride the final stage of the Tour
around Paris, the same day as the competitors. This sounded interesting,
particularly as it's not something held every year, so I surfed on over to the
Tour de France web site (www.letour.fr) and had a peek around. Sure enough
there was a page where I could download an application form, fill it in and
send it off. It sounded like fun so three forms were duly printed off, filled
in; one for Vernon, one for Nathan and one for yours truly. I posted them to
France and forgot about them. July came round rapidly and the Tour started.
Vernon mentioned that it was a pity we hadn't managed to get a place on the
Randonnée, as we would surely have heard by now if we had of. I agreed it was
a shame. Vernon and I have made the effort to watch the Tour almost every year
since 1988. Indeed we both remember 1989 as being that fantastic year when the
outcome of the Tour was decided on the final day by a time trial around Paris
with Greg Lemond and Laurent Fignon battling it out, with Lemond winning by a
mere eight seconds. The closest ever margin between victor and runner-up.
Nathan was a baby and he duly sat on my knee that year, looking very cute in a
tiny "Z" team cap, cooing and gurgling at the riders on the television screen.
Don't tell him I have painted this picture of him - he's grown a bit since then
and no longer sits on my knee gurgling and cooing at the screen. Nor does he
wear a tiny "Z" team cap for that matter.

A couple of days into this year's Tour and Vernon collected the post from the
front doormat. "Helen, there's a letter here for you and it's from France.
There's one for Nathan and one for me too." I managed to control my excitement
as I steadied my hands to open the envelope. Yes! We had managed it! We'd been
accepted to ride the Randonnée in Paris on July 27th! Instructions and our
Randonnée ID bracelets were included. We were going to be wearing yellow
jerseys and cycling around Paris as part of the centenary celebrations! All of
a sudden I came back down to earth with a bump and I said to Vernon, "You do
realise we have to get to Paris and find accommodation there on the busiest
weekend in the whole year… don't you?"

A flurry of activity followed. I spent hours on the Internet and the phone
trying to find accommodation in Paris from basic camping to more luxuriant
hotels. Nothing was to be had. Then Vernon came up trumps. Some time ago, he'd
been working away from home a lot and staying in Marriott hotels. As a result,
he'd built up a fair few Marriott points - a sort of hotel equivalent to air
miles. He picked up the phone to Marriott Hotels and within minutes we had a
suite in a four-star hotel on the Boulevard Victor Hugo in Neuilly just outside
the main city boundary for the whole weekend, Friday afternoon to the Monday
morning. Looking at a map it was a mere spit and a throw from the Champs
Elysées and only a bit further from the Ecole Militaire and the Tour Eiffel,
where the Randonnée would start. Accommodation organised; we took a breath and
decided our plans in more detail.

Running our own business means taking holidays is haphazard and not always
possible to organise easily in advance. You don't get holiday pay and if you
aren't working, you aren't earning, so holidays are a luxury. We decided to
make the most of our Parisian good fortune and take the entire week following
Paris as a holiday. After some discussion, we settled on a week in Cologne. I
got in contact with the Cologne Tourist Office and in my faltering German and
the nice man from the Cologne Tourist Office's much better English, we booked a
self-catering apartment in Weiden, on the outskirts of the city. That settled
we reserved crossings via Hoverspeed from Dover to Calais, as this was cheaper
than going by the tunnel or the other ferry operators. I even managed to get a
hold of the Cologne Fahrrad-stadtplan - a most excellent map and book about
cycling in and around Cologne, with the only problem being the book was
entirely in German, as no English edition is available. My rusty "O" level
German is very rusty indeed and although Nathan is studying German to GCSE
level, he isn't exactly confident in it. This was one reason for the choice of
Cologne - to give him a chance to practice speaking German for real.

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This is sent from a redundant email
Mail sent to it is dumped
My correct one can be gleaned from
h*$el***$$n*$d$ot$**s**i$$m*$m$**on**$s$@*$$a**$*o l*$*.*$$c$om*$
by getting rid of the overdependence on money and fame
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omcom (wafflyDIRTYcatLITTERhcsBOX) wrote in
:

CYCLING WITH ARMSTRONG, ULLRICH, AND HAMILTON WITH A BIT OF THE RHINE
THROWN IN FOR GOOD MEASURE
By Helen Simmons

Excellent tour report Helen, a 'tour de Force'



Fragg

Excellent tour report Helen, a 'tour de Force'

Thank you!

Cheers, helen s


~~~~~~~~~~
This is sent from a redundant email
Mail sent to it is dumped
My correct one can be gleaned from
h*$el***$$n*$d$ot$**s**i$$m*$m$**on**$s$@*$$a**$*o l*$*.*$$c$om*$
by getting rid of the overdependence on money and fame
~~~~~~~~~~