Allez, Allez, Allez...at le Tour with the Benderz!

What an awesome day! Let me start by saying that I have never, ever been so happy to hear an alarm go off at 5:50 in the morning. What a horrible night! I don't think anyone slept at all...it was crazy hot all night long and so, so noisy. I am not a super picky hotel person - as long as it feels safe and is around stuff to walk to, I'm usually pretty happy. But even Bender was unhappy with this place last night...we're going to email and ask for a refund, but since we never saw a real person during our stay, it was hard to express disgust. So 6am saw us up and ready to get the heck out of dodge. We went to the train station and Chris and Zack got a couple pastries, I wasn't even interested in coffee...(I know, egads!).

Once on the train, Zoe and I slept pretty much the whole ride. Zack slept for part and then did some reading...I'm going to put this picture up, even though I look a wreck, because, well, it's hysterical.

It was a straight shot today, Lyon to Besancon. About twenty minutes from our train stop, we saw the beginning of Le Tour. You should have seen all the helicopters ready to deploy! I guess there was some other beautiful scenery, but I slept through it...Chris has some pictures on his camera that I'll add to Shutterfly later, wifi in this hotel is iffy. We arrived on time in Besancon - and Zoe had a blast with the aeroblade dryer...

We had our first experience with a cabbie that we absolutely could not communicate with. He knew no English, and as I've mentioned, we know no French. Chris (my super smarty hubby - I've learned to appreciate a number of his quirks on this trip) brought printouts for each of our hotels...so the cabbie knew where we were going. But Chris wanted him to wait while we checked in and take us to the tour...and well, it didn't happen. Hotel du Nord is awesome - maybe it's partially because I'm still comparing it to last night, and partially because it reminds us so much of the fun place we stayed for Ashlee and Conrad's wedding with the Bender/Giblin clan - so unique and fun! When we arrived, this poster greeted us...

Now for the story you've all been waiting for...when we were checking in, Chris asked if we could walk to the tour course. The lady at the front desk said no, it was too far (which made all four of us chuckle), and said we should call a taxi. She was getting ready to call us one, when a young man (35ish) who was standing in the hotel, kind of hanging out, said that he'd be happy to give Chris a ride to the finish line - because that's where he was headed. Chris lit up like a Christmas tree, and asked if he could accomodate all four of us...then looked at me and saw the horror of getting in a car with a random stranger with my children in my eyes. The man said he could, and as I panicked, he went out to his (very nice) VW wagon and started moving around his computer and portfolio. I started to calm down a bit (lame, I know) and then he explained to us that he was a Swiss newspaper reporter covering the tour for his paper. I thought Chris was literally going to hurt his face, he was smiling so hard. He had the press credentials and a press car and he and Chris talked soccer and tennis and tour all the way around Besancon. He was a really nice guy - and gave a pretty good tour. His name was Simon...I can't wait to try and find his article in the paper!

Simon dropped us at around 2km from the finish line. We hung out for a little bit there and saw some lower ranked riders whiz by...

Then we started our trek to the finish line. The riders were coming about every five minutes, so we were able to "rush the tape" as Chris put it. Some of them were coming so close to us, we totally could have touched them. Their team cars were coming even closer! It was a really, really fun day.

(Quick rest break...not for Zoe, for Chris' shoulders)

After we made it almost all the way to the finish line, we realized we were on the wrong side and couldn't get to any of the fun "stuff". So we treked back down the hill (they make the riders go up a hill for the very last part of the time trial...a decent hill at that. Didn't seem fair to me), walked to a place we could cross the course, and walked our way back up. It was an extra 2 km or so, but it was worth it because we made it to the food!!

...and the shopping...

(Don't you love Chris' shirt? So cool!!)...and the general craziness of the finish line...

(including the press area. We never did catch up with Simon again. Watching the reporters was fun though. They gave the riders approximately 10 seconds to catch their breath before they were shoving microphones in their face and wanting to know thing...not sure what things, it was all in French :)

...and of course Z & Z found the free stuff...

Then we made our way back to the 2km mark (stopping and cheering each time a rider went by), where we had a pastry break.

And then watched Americans Levi Leipheimer and Christopher Horner go by. Horner was so close, I swear he pulled my ponytail as he went by.

We were still a ways from our hotel, but we decided that my phone could get us home. So we walked...and saw quite a bit of Besancon. Beautiful city!

(How super cute is our hotel? LOVE it!) Then we headed out to shop the streets of Besancon in the hour we had before stores started to close at 7pm. We actually bought a couple of presents today...yay! We did dinner at a place that was advertising pizza. It was the yummiest pizza ever (crazy, crazy, CRAZY cheese!) - and we had another fun, family dinner.

After dinner, we went in search of a pastry shop for dessert, but alas, they were all closed for the night. So we went to another restaurant and got tiramisu, nougat glace, and a sampler that included pear ice cream, panacotta, chocolate mouse and some other yummy treats. That restaurant got so busy, the waitstaff and management got into a bit of a tussle and well, forgot about us. So we waited, and watched the drama. We have no idea what anyone was saying, but I can guarantee it wasn't pretty. Finally we paid and headed back for baths and "early" bedtime...10:30 is early, right? We have a taxi coming at 5:40 to pick us up and take us to the train station tomorrow. We have a 2.5 hour ride to Paris! Yay Paris! Hopefully everyone will sleep on the train and the whole day will be a dream. As long as our excellent streak of good wifi holds out, I'll blog with you again then :) XOXO, Benderz (Allez, Allez, Allez is my new favorite cheer!)