The Modern Tour de France Caravanne 2018

The Tour de France caravan is the reason that fully 48% of people bother turning up to watch (proper statistic I saw somewhere or another, honest). We noticed the crowds thinned after the caravan, so it must be true.

You need guts to ride in the Tour de France

...but if you don't get too tyred

...you return feeling chipper.

Water lot of effort go into these machines.

Blog posts about previous caravannes can be found here.

The Old Caravanne

As we said before, this year we saw the Tour de France again. This year's third stage of the Tour de France at Cholet was graced by a number of véhicules publicitaires de caravane ancienne, which followed the regular caravan of sponsor's vehicles. Most (if not all) of the vehicles belong to a man called Lionel Blanleil, who has been collecting and restoring them for over 30 years.

This first one is a mystery - the only refence online I can find
refers to it as a "mobile yellow jersey podium"

a 1960 Peugoet D4 advertising SPAR supermarkets

Peugeot J7 "Marché de France" of 1974

There were two Renault Butagaz promotional vehicles from 1961

1954 Citroen H-Van of the Midi Libre press unit

1961 Renault 1.400kg advertising Onrev Matresses

1960 Renault press van of la Nouvelle Republique.

There is an article (with photos) of this vehicle here

Renault 1400Kg Type R 2066 of 1953 advertising Byrrh.
Because it's France and 2018 the name of the product has been obscured,

because alcohol advertising is no longer legal

A 1966 Renault advertising Castelvin.
As with the previous vehicle, the branding has been obscured

Caravanne - the Movie

As promised, the Caravan of the Tour de France 2009.

There were a few vehicles in the caravanne this year I didn't see last year:

Also, a couple of photos of the helicopter taking the pictures for television. Last year over Preuilly it was a lot higher in the sky, for those authentically beautiful views.

If you were watching television, this is the helicopter filming as the peleton went through the crossroads ar le Relais (about 17km from the finish).

We didn't get as many goodies this year - a bag of Haribo licorice is all I scored. Maybe one needs to be in a town so the vehicles are travelling slower as they pass you. I enjoy the Tour de France so much that I am considering watching it every year. Living in the (almost) centre of France, we should be within a couple of hours drive of the course most years. It will be interesting to see if crowds on non-holiday days are as large as the were on Bastille Day.

Simon

Tour de France 2009

Last year the Tour came through Preuilly sur Claise. This year the closest it came was near Chateauroux - about 60km away, but as Susan had missed the Tour last year we decided to take a bit of a trip so she could experience it first hand.

We drove to a crossroads called le Relais, found a comfortable spot and waited.

This short (5 minutes or so) film is what it is like at the Tour de France, from the time when you think you might see some bicyclists until the time it is all over.

These blokes were leading when they went past us
but the stage was won by Mark Cavendish who was
sitting back in the pack about 2 minutes behind.

The peleton from behind. I had hoped to get a photo of expectant
faces in the crowd, but all I got was bums.

And this is us!

Later in the week we will present the wonders of the Caravanne in living video.

Simon

Tour de France 2011

Usual madness...

A couple of new caravanne cars:

and lots of shouting and stuff.

This year we were stood at the top of the climb out of the Cher River valley at Faverolles sur Cher. This meant that instead of the whooshing of two years ago, we had serious riding up hills faces.

Mum and Dad were most impressed (although my mother confessed to being a bit confused by it all). We really enjoyed the fete atmosphere, even though the buvette was chaotic. (No-one, including the officials, had quite worked out how it operated: as one explained to Susan "well - we don't get the Tour de France every day"). Alongside the beer and sausage tents there was a crepe tent, some food tasting, stunt bicycles, a decorate your bike contest for the kids, stationary bike races (rolling road things) and various community and artisan food stalls.

And now the movie:

Yes, if you know where to look and stop on the correct frame of the coverage, you can see us. No, you won't recognise us - in fact, not even my mother would recognise me, and she was there....

Simon

Tour de France, More Photos

The day the Tourcame to town was so colourful and exciting that it seems a pity not to show more.

So here we go:

Bengt taking care of the mergeuz

The Caravanne







And some cyclists

Simon

The Circus hits Town

Wow.

What a do!

Maybe not the most sophisticated afternoon's entertainment, but a real barrel of laughs.

For those who have not experienced the excitement of Tour de France day (hi Susan and Ken), this is how the day goes:

First you get together for lunch with some friends. In this case it was Adrian, Carolyn and Corey from Australia, and Bengt and Susanne from Sweden. After a BBQ of Chili prawns, mergeuz sausages, various salads and a splash of gamay we wandered down the bottom of our street (struggling uphill struck us as a silly idea).

After watching the gendarmes stop the traffic (we had a barrier at the end of our street, how cool!) you wait around for ever in the sun, watching your neighbours watching you.....

After a while a couple of police bikes zoom past (in fact, many police bikes zoom past)

There is then a pause during which the occasional sponsors car, official car or police bike wizzes past.

After an hour the official "caravanne" blasts past - all pumping music, dancing girls and free gifts. I now have so many bags, hats that dont fit me, free copies of newpapers, minipackets of sweets, laundry detergent, keyrings........... The one that impressed most was the man from Vittel misting the bystanders with cold water.





After the caravanne has past there is a wait of about an hour, interspersed with more officials, police bikes, photographers on bikes, and rumours of impending arrival of cyclists. Then the street sweeper arrives.

There is then a couple of cars and vans making announcements you can't hear properly and wouldn't understand anyway telling you how far away the cyclists are. And then the cyclists arrive.

First the leaders, surrounded by camera motorbikes and cars with spare bikes on the roof.

There is a pause of about 5 - 10 minutes, then the peleton (all those not leading the section) arrives and screams past.

They are followed by support vehicles carrying spare bikes, first aid cars and breakdown trucks (and more police on bikes)

And then the day is over. Two hours of standing in the sun, getting carried away and waving at cars full of policemen, and wondering about why it makes you feel you have witnessed something so special.

Simon