J'ai tricoté au Tour de France

Which is my high school French attempt at saying, "I have knitted at the Tour de France." Here is a picture of what I was knitting, a cell phone (or "handy" as they say here in Germany) sock. I'm making it out of wool and silk tweed yarn, using a US size 3 Skacel Addi lace knitting needle and "magic loop" method. Why? Because 1) I kept running out of minutes on my cellphone while it was in my purse and it would get hit on this or that button and dial whatever number without my knowledge, 2) it was the first yarn I picked up and hurriedly packed away before I went to bed last night, 3) and we were going to be sitting there waiting for hours before the bicyclists would whiz by.  Unfortunately, the deep aubergine color (note, I use French for "eggplant") does not show up well in this light. At least the needles show up somewhat (I bought them at the Unraveled Yarn shop back in Federal Way, WA--I also think I might have bought the yarn there, too).



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Yes, it is true, John and I made it to the Tour de France! No, we did not go to France, but went to Andenne, Belgium, a small town just west of Wanze; Wanze was the start of the third stage of the Tour de France. If we should be so lucky as to see the bicyclists, we thought we should try to get a good place in which to take pictures. However, we would settle for just absorbing the bicycle culture, because that was what John wanted to do. We would see the parade, we would go to the cycling museum, and if we just so happened to see the bicyclists, that would be the creme de la creme. Getting good pictures of the cyclists--well, that would be icing on creme de la creme cake.

So, being the good (and enabling) wife that I am, I did some research on Google Earth, and based on the notion that the beginning and end of a stage would be a madhouse of crowds, it might be wise to go elsewhere than Wanze, Belgium or Arenberg Porte du Hainant in France. I figured Andenne would be a good place; it was but a few minutes drive from Wanze and the bicycle museum there, and only an hour and 15 minute drive from Süsterseel, Germany where we live. Comparing the Tour de France stage course Google map and the Google Earth map, I was able to pinpoint a corner at a round-about around which the bicyclists would travel. According to Google Earth, there was a shopping center there, with plenty of parking. The Google Earth map was from 2007, and it looked like there might be an empty lot, so who knows what might have been built on it since then, but we decided to go there nevertheless.

We got up at an ungodly hour of the morning (okay, John got up earlier than I did, but it was still 5 am), and left at 6:30 am, although we had to turn around and get my cell phone, because it was the safe thing to do. We did hit a little bit of rush hour traffic, but it's nothing like rush hour at home, so it delayed us just a little.

We came into Andenne; it's a small town that looked like it had seen better days. Like much of the Walloon area of Belgium, it has been economically depressed, and from what I can see, lacking improvements in some of its infrastructure (for instance, most European towns I've been in have some broadband internet--I can tell when I turn on my iPod Touch to search for a network and see how many open and secure networks are available. In Andenne, there were none, regardless of where I walked, even where there are homes and apartment buildings). However, there seems to be some hope in the new grocery stores and hardware stores that have recently been built there.

We found that indeed the place we saw on the map was at a grocery store area. There, we sat at a cafe and sipped cafe au lait for a while before deciding to scope out the area through which the cyclists would go. On the way, I saw an amazing old house that was being renovated. A little conversation with an elderly lady across the street (in my bad French, but we managed to converse) revealed that this grand maison was indeed very old, over 100 years old, and was being renovated into apartments. I felt a little sad that it would not be restored to its original glory, but at least it was being restored and used.

We walked on, and a little reconnoitering found the empty lot we had seen on Google Earth turned out to be yet another shopping center with plenty of parking and right at the roundabout corner through which the Tour cyclists would go. So John went back and brought the car the the grocery store, not far from the Mr. Bricolage store, which looked to be a hardware store. Monsieur Bricolage. Somehow, when said in French, even the hardware store sounds artistic.

It still wanted a few hours until the bicyclists, or even the parade, would come through, so we walked along the river Meuse (a.k.a. Maas if you are in the Netherlands) for a while. The town must have been a place where ships once docked, because there were more than a few tie posts and loops to which ship lines could be tied. It was a beautiful walk, lined with bright poppies, thistles, and morning glories. It would have been unbearably hot if it had not been for the clouds that mercifully covered the sun from time to time.  Just as I felt I was getting too warm, a cloud would obligingly come by and offer some shade until I cooled off, and the gentle breeze that came up the street from the river was a constant comfort.

 However, after a while, my sprained ankle began to ache a bit, so we returned to the car where I rested, while John walked around for a bit, and came back with Tour de France souvenirs, including a t-shirt.

Then we heard loudspeakers, which we took to mean the parade was about to appear.
John took his backpack with our lunch as well as two folding chairs to the corner of the roundabout, where we positioned ourselves across the street from a store that called itself "Clean Express Poty." I don't know what it sells, however the words "Elixir" was printed on its awning, and "sauna" on its window.   I think it must have been a day spa or the like.

I looked at my watch. It would still be more than a few hours before the race, so I took out my knitting and began a sock-toe cast on, which is perfect if one wishes to make a cell phone sock.

As I sat there knitting, I regretted that my camera was no longer working (not reliably, anyway), and so I didn't have it. John had his, but it was certain that the groups of cyclists would split as it came to the roundabout, to converge on the other side. The best way to take pictures of the cyclists would be to take one corner or the other and take pictures as face-on as possible, so that the photo wouldn't blur.

Though he had a stop-action setting on his camera, which he did use, taking pictures of the cyclists perpendicularly would increase the chances of blurring.

We sat at our corner (the river side) for a while and ate our sandwiches while we watched the parade of sponsors and other cars drive by, throwing goodies out to the spectators on either side.

I didn't bother to pick up any, as the children were too busy doing it, and I was sure they'd enjoy their finds more than I.   Here is the Haribo (of Gummy Bear fame) candy car, throwing out bags of candy to the spectators. There was even a float for the adults; here is a little Chippendale action from the Xtra detergent company, appropriately set against the Clean Express Poty store.

The parade ended, and even more people came to the cycling route with, of course, their bicycles. I love that the little boy has a yellow cycling jersey. It looks like his mom might have a map of the Tour route on her bike handles.

I think I knitted a good 3 inches of the cell phone sock (I had to take it apart a couple of times to get the gauge and number of stitches right) when I noticed a helicopter flying swiftly ahead toward us, the loud speaker sounded again, and the crowd up the street stood up and looked alert. John suddenly decided to go to the other corner to take pictures there, as it seemed that side would be the easier throughway. I decided to stay where I was and keep watch over the backpack and chairs, as John waved at me to stay where I was.

The team cars sped through the roundabout, and I stood up from my chair and knitted even faster out of excitement. I would actually see the Tour de France competitors! The thought made my fingers fly over the needles even faster.

Clapping sounded from the spectators, and I stopped knitting and stared as the leaders whizzed through the roundabout, among them a group of men in red and dark grey.

And then it was done. I waited for a bit longer, looking to see if there was going to be any more...but there wasn't! That was it!

Well.

I was a little disappointed, because there didn't seem to be that many cyclists. However, the pictures John took showed me that there were indeed many, but they had gone through so fast, it seemed like there weren't.

As you can see, there were a lot of riders. However...it seems I was the one who saw Lance Armstrong and the Radio Shack team because it looks like they rode past my corner of the roundabout.

Sigh. Now I really wish I had had a camera. Such is life.

Still, we achieved our goal, and that was to attend the Tour de France and even better--which we didn't expect--we got some fabulous action photos of the cyclists coming around the roundabout. We didn't get to go to the Wanze's cycle museum, because it was closed, but we will go another time. As for John, he will be posting his impressions and photos on his blog shortly, I am sure!