First, we went to church. We love our French church. Mark and our pastor played guitar, our friend Jony (a missionary from England) played trumpet, and our neighbor and friend Rosewitha played violin. It was awesome! Here they are rehearsing:
And, I taught Sunday school for the first time today, and in French, no less!!!! It was great fun, and Ryan told me I got 95% of what I said right. Wow! God's grace abounds. :-)
Our church happens to be just 2 blocks from the road where the Tour de France would be finishing today, so we decided to go and check-it-out. Here are a few photos we took:
A cameraman preparing for his shot down the road. (That's the Lourvre Museum behind him.)
If you watched the final laps, you saw the racers go underground for a stretch. That was this tunnel just behind the security guards, which is in front of the Louvre museum.
And the crowds were already starting to line up. This photo was taken at about 1:30 p.m., but the racers didn't start riding on this road until about 5 p.m. When we saw this spot on the TV later, people were lined up 10 people deep!
But, we left. We decided to watch it from home on TV. After having lunch and watching the race on TV for a short while, we heard the announcers say that the racers were due to arrive in Issy les Moulineaux (the city we live in, which is just outside the border of Paris), we decided to jump on our scooters and go check it out!
Boy, are we glad that we did! We scootered for about 15 minutes, then waited about 25 or 30 minutes (it certainly didn't seem long with all that was going on), and this is what we saw!
Police and security folks on motorcycles.
A number of cars passing which were covered with advertisements for various products.
Before long, the helicopters started circling. We knew the racers must be getting closer now!
Eventually, these two cars came driving by very, very slowly. Then, a couple cars with lights on the top and we knew it was going to happen very, very soon!
Look! There they are!!!!!
The pack. Maybe I actually have a photo of Lance Armstrong here, but how would I know? They passed so quickly in one big clump.
And, there they go.
Then, I switched the camera to video. Here's a feel of what it was like:
We zoomed home on our scooters to watch the racers arrive at the Champs Elysées on TV. We got home JUST in time!
What a thrill! We're glad we got to experience this incredible event. Who would have ever thought this day would happen! Life is just full of surprises, isn't it.
P.S. We dedicate this post to Steve & Carrie A (plus your girls) and Kirk & Laura H (plus your boys). We wish you all could have been here to do this with us. Maybe another year, huh. :-)
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