Already exhausted

It is a little over a week since we returned to Caunes after our Tour de Yorkshire trip “home”. However, quite a bit has been packed in during the last week, and we are now looking forward to a couple of quiet weeks before various family members arrive. 

Watching the world cup final on a large screen with French neighbours, interspersed with joining the fete nationale parade from the Mairie to the rugby stadium for pre quatorze feu d’artifice…( then back to the big screen for the world cup extra time ) …..was exhausting in itself.

The children's lanterns all held candles.... we saw a few lanterns that had caught fire by being tilted too much...parents had to be pretty watchful.

These flares were set off along the route of the parade....next to parked cars, children in buggies, etc. It looked dangerous, but there seemed to be no problems.

The parade grew and grew as more people joined it as it wound its way around the village. It filled the whole main street at this point.

Then there was le Quatorze itself……having picked up friends from the airport who joined us for the experience, we watched the amazing Carcassonne fireworks from a hillside outside the city.

We waited for the fireworks as it finally got dark.

They were spectacular, and as usual, there is a section in the middle of the display where Carcassonne looks as if it is completely on fire.  The theme for the display this year was love, although at one point we were pretty sure it must have been war.

The weather has been beautiful all week, while our visitors have been here. I began teaching with Melody 38 years ago, and I lived with her during my first couple of years as a teacher. We had some serious adventures during those years ! ( another post maybe ).

So, we have done a fair bit of lazing around the pool, but  we also felt it was important to show our guests how lovely Caunes can be.

Melody and Craig enjoyed seeing Caunes, but particularly enjoyed breakfast in the bar each morning

One morning, I left our guests by the pool and  joined friends for a walk to the cave outside Trassannel, where a group of maquis members were massacred by Nazis in August 1944. However, we managed to lose the right path within 100 metres of the car park from where we set off. We had an excellent  7K walk...but, failed to find the cave.  We discovered where we went wrong....so...........next time, we'll find it !

If we had done what Wendy said we should do...we'd have been fine !

We should have followed the red and yellow route....#36.....we ended up on #37. I fear, if we'd carried on, and not turned back, we'd have ended up in Paris !

We also invited some friends round for a chili ( on what was probably the hottest day of the summer so far….perhaps not the best menu choice ).

Another round of the café des langues took place in the local bar.

The cafe des langues has now become a weekly fixture in our local bar. Sometimes the conversation dries up...but we certainly have a laugh, and learn new phrases all the time...this week we learned about hangovers ! ( It was the morning after our chili night, Mark was one that felt just a little fragile.

…..and we enjoyed a couple of lovely meals out with Melody and Craig……

and finally, I kept in touch with Jess all day yesterday via various social media sources, to try to share in her " graduation as a teacher day". We flew back to England last year for her  degree graduation, but agreed with her, that perhaps we didn’t need to be there for her PGCE graduation. Thank goodness for face book, whats app and blogging !

Le Tour et Hebden Bridge

Le Tour came and went through Hebden Bridge just as quickly as we knew it would. In fact, the TV coverage showed the descent into the town……and the road along the Calder Valley, towards Cragg Vale ( or Cote du Ripponden as it was called in the TV commentary ), as the peleton left Hebden Bridge……but showed nothing of the town or the canal. Hebden Bridge vanished  in an advert break !

We didn’t care.

We had a great day.

Le Tour had left Leeds on day 1, and ended up in Harrogate, where Mark Cavendish crashed out onto the tarmac just metres from the finish line….badly injured, unable to continue on the following day, with a dislocated shoulder and ligament damage.

However, all seemed to agree that the crowds had been amazing, the racing was good and the weather had been lovely. So, Yorkshire had been shown off well, despite Cav’s fall.

A press photo which will surely be the subject of caption competitions for years to come.....Cameron and Boycott....a fly on the wall could well have been bored rigid.

Day 2 began in York, and ended in Sheffield.

 We felt as if this was “our” day.

 It came from York via Haworth and Keighley (The  French pronounciation was brilliant…..sounded like Kyley ), then skirted Hebden Bridge, went up Cragg Vale, through Ripponden….past a house I lived in 20 odd years ago, onto Huddersfield, and then south through Holmfirth and up the incredible Holme Moss, before getting to  Sheffield.

Hebden Bridge, the evening before le Tour arrived

Hebden street theatre

Jess and I walking along the canal, the evening before le Tour

A Hebden Bridge street party...just outside the Trades Club.

Decorated canal barge windows

 I have already posted about the preparations towns in West Yorkshire had made, and the last couple of days before Le Tour began saw even more yellow and red spotty things being arranged everywhere.

Hebden Bridge held a "Grand De Party" in the streets on Day 1. It was brilliant….the weather was glorious and the town was full of visitors who intended to enjoy themselves….and the residents of this fascinating little town always know how to do that.

The bridge...in Hebden Bridge, part of the street party

Decorations at the town hall

We left home at about 8am on the actual day…to get our viewing point  established. It was lovely, walking through the streets with no traffic. All through roads were closed by 6.30 am, and the checking and sweeping of the route began, prior to the handover from the local council, to Le Tour operators.

getting ready

 When we decided on our spot, we were the only people there, but within a short while, the roadside became crowded, and we were able to exchange Tour stories with our new roadside friends. The atmosphere was great.

early morning....we did not intend to miss a thing, and we picked a great spot

Although he roads were closed to all but Tour traffic, they were open for cyclists who wanted to ride the route….and many did. They all received huge cheers as they went past....especially young riders.

A young rider...in his Team Sky kit, enjoying the empty roads, testing out the route.

The caravan came through right on time, but was a little sparse, compared with the caravan we have seen in France. There were only a few decorated floats, but the Tour cars, police vehicles and gendarmes on motor bikes received massive cheers as they went through. One moto- cop managed to high five spectators as he went by.

Le Tour itself went by quickly, there was a 2 minute break away of a few riders, and then the peleton swept by…. I did manage to catch the yellow jersey….Kittel, the sprinter who had won the first stage in Harrogate. ( Who knows if Cav hadn’t been going for that gap that wasn’t really there…. Maybe, he would have been sweeping past us in yellow ).

Kittel in yellow

As soon as it had gone past, those of us by the roadside started to make a move. Some people went to the park to watch the rest of the race on the big screen, some wandered around the town, but we made our way home, all of about half a mile away. Everyone was smiling, …..Hebden Bridge had really enjoyed its Tour day, and I didn’t hear anyone moaning  !

just plenty of celebrations

The peleton was just about to arrive.....phones at the ready

We watched the huge crowds on Cragg Vale, and on Holme Moss on TV. It went without a hitch. Whatever was to happen next ( and as I write this, on day 6, there have been some pretty amazing scenes in France), we knew that Yorkshire had done the tour proud.

After the peleton had gone through, the crowds started to disperse

Press photo of Holme Moss

Allez allez,ey up

A press photo of Team Sky checking out the cobbles in Haworth, prior to the start

 After the most incredible build up....it is almost here. Le grand depart, le Tour in Yorkshire....... it begins the day after tomorrow. .

Having organised hospital check ups to coincide with the Tour de France being in Yorkshire ( another “all clear”, by the way ), I have been delighted to see the preparations for this amazing event.

It's not just Kirklees, of course, but each council area that le Tour goes through has done its own thing.....this was on paving stones in Holmfirth

Estimates vary as to how many people will be in the Calder Valley on Sunday, when stage 2 of the Tour, from York, to Sheffield, will come through Hebden Bridge, on its way to Cragg Vale ( the longest, not the steepest, continuous incline in England), into Huddersfield, south through Holmfirth, across the majestic Holme Moss and into Sheffield.

Again...not my photo, this is courtesy of a friend, Gill, showing the pop up French farm that has been set up in front of Huddersfield station

The top of Holme Moss...this will sort them out. No camping is allowed on the sides of the road, no camper van parking either. I dont think that would go down well in France....well, it would just be ignored.

Yesterday someone “reliably” informed me that 250,000 people would be in the Calder valley. Today someone told me it was more likely to be 180,000. Hebden Bridge is apparently expecting 30,000.

( There were 10,000 here for the Easter Monday duck race ( don’t ask)......and that was just about grid lock )

The canal basin in Hebden Bridge

Windows are decorated, bunting ...and world record lengths of the stuff, has been strung everywhere. Yellow bikes are attached to lamp posts, telegraph poles, cranes, sides of houses...you name it, there’ll be a yellow bike there.

This decorated telegraph pole is just outside Calderdale Royal Hospital

Holmfirth

Knitted & crocheted coverings in Holmfirth

Sid's cafe, Holmfirth..... Last of the Summer Wine fame, suitably decked out.

Another last of the Summer Wine image....

People are smiling, people are excited, people who know nothing about bike races are learning lots of French words, like peleton and boudin.

Seen in a children's clothes shop in Hebden Bridge

 There are those who moan....about road closures, about the commercialism of it all, the potential littering that will be left by the crowds, the huge crime rate they expect will come with all these “comers in” to God’s own county  and I even saw a letter in a local paper today where someone was complaining about graffiti on the road, where fans paint riders’ names.

Well, as far as I’m, concerned, these moaning minnies should all just vacate Yorkshire until Monday and leave those of us that are thrilled about it all, to enjoy every minute.

The King of the Mountains

My own preparations have been to contribute to getting the Overgate Hospice shop suitably dressed for the occasion, visiting Holmfirth, so I could compare its displays with those in Hebden Bridge, taking quite a lot of photos, even for me ! and buying appropriate T shirts for wearing on the day.

The Overgate Hospice shop display....... I personally wrapped that bike up with strips of yellow paper !

I will of course, be blogging about the day the race came to town here in Hebden, but for now, I am just posting some images of us in Yorkshire getting ready for it all. ( I will also be posting about le depart from Carcassonne in 2 weeks time....I am so spoiled, seeing it here in Yorkshire, and then again in southern France )

No Wiggo in this year's tour, but the baptist Church in Hebden Bridge have used his image to get their message across

I dont suppose it's a Banksy.....but it's very Hebden Bridge.

Not sure ift its got anything to do with le Tour, but  as Hebden Bridge Arts festival coincides with le Tour...the town is decorated anyway.

Window displays and reflections..... a Yorkshire town looking great....good old Hebden Bridge

I love this..... millstone grit, and bunting, Hebden Bridge

This is in our living room window....it's yellow on the outside.
 

and this is my favourite.... The nappy shop in Hebden Bridge...... green and environmentally friendly, of course, welcomes Le Tour.