Bonjour Colorado

Tour Mania Versus Zee Segway

The Segway Peloton of Paris

I’ve been thinking about whizzing around Paris these days.

It’s July and I’m consumed with The Tour. I’m referring to the Tour de France, as I’m sure you might have guessed.

I love watching the undulating ribbon of the peloton weave its way through France, but it’s in Paris on the last day of this epic bike race that this colorful procession mystifies me the most. I think it’s because Paris is so familiar to me: I’ve walked the great length of the Champs-Elysées countless times, wended my way around the expansive place de la Concorde, strolled beneath the arcades of the rue de Rivoli from Concorde to Palais Royal. Seeing the Tour de France posse (caravan, cyclists, team cars, press and officials) dominate this familiar terrain mesmerizes me the most. How incredibly fitting it is to have some of the world’s finest athletes power over the same routes reserved for royalty and heads of state.

If you’re not able to be in the City of Light on the final day of this great race, I encourage you to at least catch part of the last stage on T.V. Even the lively commentary of the sportscasters can’t drone out the pack’s thunderous rumble over the cobbles, the resounding swoosh and whir as they travel along Paris’s centuries-old streets.

If you’re at all like me, you’ll also be envious of the racers having the streets of Paris to themselves. Quel bonheur! Can you imagine how great that feels, pedaling through these historic streets at lightening speed?

There’s nothing like experiencing a place from a bicycle or I suppose, even a Segway. I’m reminded of this every time I hop on a bike but it really hit home recently when a friend told me about how he breezed around Paris standing head and shoulders above the masses. He had taken a Segway tour and visited a good number of Paris’s best-loved sites and monuments in a flash, without the inconveniences of sore feet or having to get on and off a bus a ton of times.

“You mean one of those goofy looking motorized vehicles that has you riding around town perfectly upright?” I asked.

“You betcha,” my friend replied. “They’re really cool. And comfortable, too.”

In my mind I had a hard time getting past the Sci Fi look of these two-wheeled vehicles. My otherworldly impressions of these personal transporters were further reinforced when my friend told me that you lean forward to go forward, backward to go backward.

Hmmmm. I instantly visualized my friend to-ing and fro-ing through the streets of Paris. This image was juxtaposed with a flash of the peloton rounding the top of the Champs-Elysées in a sort of hairpin turn fashion requiring the riders to lean into the turn in order to maintain balance on the bike.

“Sounds revolutionary,” I remarked, half jokingly. Yet I became truly intrigued when I learned that these Segways are driven by electric motors, a greener alternative to other personal transportation devices such as mopeds and motorcycles, both of which occupy a good amount of Paris road space along with its usual clog of motorized vehicles.

Cycling around Paris has become increasingly alluring to me, especially with the city emerging as a more biker friendly metropolis. But now I have Segways to consider. I suddenly feel intrigued, especially by the contrast of this Modern World transportation in Old World Paris.

I can’t help wondering what the Tour de France riders might think of the Segways. Cancel that thought. Fun is fun.

I made a mental note to check out these zippy personal transporters next time I’m in the French capital. For now though I’m really looking forward to cruising around Paris with the guys from the Tour on Sunday, July 25th. What a beautiful sight indeed!

Fat Tire Bike Tours Paris, FatTireBikeTours.com/Paris

City Segway Tours Paris, CitySegwayTours.com/Paris

Note that these above companies operate bike, Segway and walking tours in other major cities and tourist destinations around the world.  Do check them out!

If you’re a Tour de France fan, be sure to listen to my interview with Graham Watson, renowned photographer of the Tour.  You can also read about it and see some of his stunning images here.

Ready, Get Set, Go!

Listen to Graham Watson Talk the Tour

2010 Tour de France Route

The 2010 Tour de France route was posted just over a month ago which means that hotels along the course are booking up fast.  There’s still time, however, to plan a trip to take in some of this renowned bike race next July.  Renowned Tour photographer, Graham Watson, will tell you how.  Read about what I wrote about Graham and his book, “Graham Watson’s Tour de France Travel Guide,” here.  You can also listen to Graham speak about the Tour and more  by clicking on the play button here:

Talking the Tour with Graham Watson

The Old Always Contrasts the New at the Tour de France

By now you must have figured out that I have a thing for France.  But it has come as a surprise to many (mostly my French friends!) that I’m crazy about the Tour de France.  How can I not be?  What a wonderful display of French countryside and good looking men!  Of course I also like the international flair of this epic bike race and cycling itself.  (Once I figured out that it’s both a team and an individual sport, I became fascinated with how well the cyclists work together.  Or not.)

Graham and His Basque Driver of Twenty Years

So you can imagine when I was pitched the idea of interviewing Tour veteran Graham Watson on Travel Fun, I jumped at the chance.  Graham, a renowned cycling photographer, has followed the Tour for about three decades.  He’s one of those dudes perched on the back of un moto that careens in and out of the peloton.  He’s one of sixteen Tour photographers that has that privilege.  (There are 150 official Tour photographers in all.)  “Being a photographer on a motorbike at the Tour de France is the best job there is,” Graham admits without a grain of conceit in his ever-so charming British accent.

I was thrilled to be able to chat with him on the phone from London, fresh off the Tour (that ended this past Sunday).  With the exception of any mention of good looking guys, I learned Graham was attracted to the Tour for much the same reasons as those that have made me such a devotee.  “It was the color, excitement, drama and the possibility of discovering France that drew me to the Tour,” Graham admitted.  In 1977, during his first trip to the Gallic land and his first Tour de France, he realized “France wasn’t so bad.”  Indeed the Tour has been a wonderful means for experiencing France for Graham and today he readily acknowledges that he’s a Francophile.  (So much for the Franco-British and British-Franco rivalry!)

A section of La Corniche, between the Col d'Aubisque and the Col du Soulor, in the 1995 Tour de France

Graham shares his passion for France and the Tour de France not only through his photography but also through a newly-released book, “Graham Watson’s Tour de France Travel Guide,” a must-have for Tour enthusiasts whether you’re planning a trip to France or not.  It’s an insider’s guide to the Tour, beautifully presented with lots of How to information, four-color maps, photos by Graham and others, history and anecdotes and more.  

This book provides you with all that you need to happily navigate this exciting sporting event.  It even tells you how to meet the pros, something that I was fortunate enough to do—totally by accident—a number of years ago.  I ended up staying in the same hotel as the U.S. Postal Team one night and actually met Lance on the eve of his legendary Alpe d’Huez win in 2001.  That’s the kind of amazing encounter you can have at the Tour.  “Cycling is a very modest sport,” Graham says.  “The riders do meet and greet the public.  They’re not super stars that hide beyond a stadium.”

Graham has seen the Tour de France evolve from a parochial French event in the late seventies to the big international event that it is today.  His career got off the ground along with the success of cycling greats Greg Lemond, Sean Kelly and Phil Anderson.  Lance Armstrong has certainly given us all the ride of our lives at the Tour.  Isn’t it wonderful though to be debriefed by someone that his been so entrenched in the peloton for so many years?  Thanks Graham for marrying your two passions:  cycling and photography.  And I might add, for choosing to do it in France.

Always an Exciting Finish on the Champs-Elysées

Tips for Attending the Tour de France from Graham Watson

-Target three to four consecutive days (stages) in the Alps or the Pyrenees and then spend about the same amount of time discovering some place else in France.

-Begin planning your trip once the Tour route has been announced mid-October.  Graham feels that the Internet is a great resource for booking hotels.  Know that many rooms are taken first by the Tour, so you have to get on it fast.

-Your best chance for meeting a cyclist is after the finish line when they often have to pedal out of the secured area.

Consult “Graham Watson’s Tour de France Travel Guide” for many more!

For up-to-the-minute news about competitive cycling, check out VeloNews.

More Graham Glory

Thank you to Graham Watson and VeloPress for the use of the above images.