July 13

For the first time in five years we're not making the long drive after watching the final time trial. Since Lance had a pretty comfortable lead, we were going to get to Paris early and watch the Time Trial on television. Our train left at 6:15 so we had to get up early even though the hotel was 100 yards from the train station. We walked down and found our train and boarded. Nobody ever checked our bags or tickets, which seemed a bit strange. There were only two other people on our car, so it was nice and quiet. Angie slept most of the five hour trip and I got a long nap in myself. About 15 minutes before we arrived in Paris a guy came by and checked our tickets. It was extra nice for me to get a nap. I'm usually a zombie by the time we get to Paris and turn the car in, then try to get some sleep before getting on the street early. This time we even had an extra day to play in Paris.

We got to our hotel by noon and took a walk around Paris to get some lunch. Some people we had met earlier in the week had mentioned a bike tour around Paris from a company called Fat Tire Tours, which was based in Austin, Texas. I emailed Fat Tire Tours and made a reservation for their evening tour around Paris. I asked Lisa at Fat Tire if she would mind if our video crew followed us on the tour. She was happy to have us and to no surprise we discovered they were huge Lance fans and were closing on Sunday to go watch the tour.

We walked down to the Eiffel Tower where the Tour met at 7:00pm. Even though it was called a night tour, it doesn't get dark until 10:00pm so there is still plenty to see as you ride through the city. The tour lasted about 4-5 hours. The only problem we had was at the start of the ride, we discovered Angie's bell on her bike didn't work - Disaster! So at the first traffic light we stopped at to regroup, I quickly dismantled my bell, took a few parts out and repaired hers - disaster averted and she could ring her bell all through Paris!

It was a lot of fun riding the cruisers through the street of Paris in a big group. Since we had about 25 riders in our group we could take over a full lane of traffic and cyclists really get much more respect here than at home. Angie's favorite part of the ride was when we stopped at the most famous ice cream shop in Paris. I can't remember the name, but the ice cream was really great! Another cool part of the ride was when we circled the inner courtyard of the Louvre. As it started to get dark we rode down to the river, parked the bikes and got on a boat for a short ride and some wine. The Eiffel Tower as well as the rest of the city was all lit up. We rode back to the bike shop after the boat ride and bought a Fat Tire t-shirt and chatted with the Austin folks. The bike tour was one of the best things we've done in Paris and I would highly recommend it. The other good info we got was from Clinton, our tour guide. We knew someone from Austin would know where a good bar was for us to watch the Time Trial the next day and he had a couple of suggestions that were pretty close to our hotel.

We picked up some chocolate crapes under the Eiffel Tower on the walk back to our hotel for our midnight dinner.