Tour De France 1903-2003

A sizeable tribute in a field at the entrance to Valliers about 20Km from Troyes.

Every village on this part of the route had put in amazing amounts of time and effort into building statues, rigging banners and decorating old bikes to support the tour.

I was fortunate enough to be able to travel over to France to watch stages 5 and 6 of this years Tour De France, having never experienced Le Tour on French soil.

A flight from Bristol took me and the bike to Paris CDG, and then I hired a car and drove down to Troyes via the D roads

Due to a cockup with the hotel I spent the first night in the car, in a lay by near Chaource on the D444.

Next morning I headed out on the route on the bike to find a good spot for photos, and take in some of the pre-race atmosphere.

Buildings
adorned with
racing jerseys
and bottles,
not to mention
flower-power
bikes, cardboard
cut-outs