Sim navigates her way around all the cars, swerving past mickey mouse, dodging all the Cohonou French sausage vans and winding her way through the washing detergent trucks. We bypass the blocked off roads and head through town. On clearer roads we detour through the town centre and make our way past the Christian Dior museum to the laundry which is a few kms out of town.
Waiting for the washing to dry, I grab a croissant and we watch out the window while it drys. We see a woman carrying a long baguette stick and Sim makes the comment that as much as it's a generalisation and stereotype, it's kind of true that French people walk around with baguettes. We've seen so many. In fact the other day we had the funniest moment of the trip when a French bulldog walked past us with a baguette in his mouth. Couldn't get my camera out in time but geez, too funny!
We watch on from the window of the coin laundry as low and behold more of the circus that is the Tour de France entourage make their way along Avenue de la Liberation and into town. They pass through for about 10 minutes. The trucks down by the port we saw earlier must have arrived late last night and these guys must've all driven down this morning from Cherbourg.
It's crazy how many people, trucks, cars and gear is required for the tour. The logistics of organising this 3 week long event are insane. It really is the ultimate roadshow, a travelling circus that moves 200 odd kms each day, setting up barricades and protective rails as they go, and creating lots of fun along the way too. Was only thinking yesterday about where all these people stay. There's so many of them. Apart from the riders and their teams of staff, drivers and hangers on, there's the commentators, press, race officials, road crew and a hell of a lot of sponsor truck crew. There'd be a few thousand people involved moving each day and needing to stay in accomodation. Crazy!
Granville must've doubled in size overnight.
After watching all the trucks go by and create one bizarre looking traffic jam, we grab our dried washing and take the back way through the town centre. Anticipating that we will be stopped at some point by the numerous traffic police we saw on the way out here, we miraculously avoid all the traffic and wind up on a small lane that takes us exactly where we need to go to get up into the old fort side of town. That was arsey! Me and sim make a good team. She's the driver and I'm the navigator!
We drop off our clothes and run down to the starting line and marshalling areas just in time, as the vans start to make there way through. It's a little earlier in the day today and it seems slightly less exciting than our first day experience, but no less bizarre. The big yellow jerseyed inflatable rider leads the convoy out and the LCL vans throw a cap in my direction which, standing up on a ledge, I grab over the crowd in front. So many hats now!
The convoy passes through and sim snares a few goodies too, which we later give to some kids nearby. I kept the hat though.
After the huge line of trucks passes through we make our way down to the rider signin and parade stage, where the official ceremony takes place and the riders individually get up on stage and sign in for the stage. Quite the fanfare, if not tedious.
The race start is getting closer now and we make our way up past the start line and find a clear spot behind the barricades to cheer the riders on. At 11:45 the riders set off from the bottom of the hill and pass through the start and up to us. It's a good starting spot as the incline sees the riders take off very slowly so you get a chance to see them a bit more.
Still within a minute they've all gone by and the procession of race officials and team cars chase after them.
We head back into town, walking along the road above the marshalling and parade area which gives us a good look down into the behind the scenes area. We grab a salad baguette to share. Along the way I spot the SBS TV crew in a cafe and give them a wave.
Been a great little sojourn to Granville and the Tour de France. Such an exciting spectacle as a whole. I must admit you don't really get to see much of the race and I'm looking forward to watching the race proper on tv when we get home, but the atmosphere surrounding it is awesome.
We head back to the flat, pack our things and head to the train station in the Twingo. Sim drops me off then drops off the car before we head on the fast train across Normandie and back to Paris.
After three and a half hours on the train through the French countryside we arrive back at Montparnasse, where we make our way all the way back through the station to the metro at the other end, quite a walk. We head up to Gare de Nord, well the metro stop Poissonniere which is not far away. We get an upgrade to a superior room. It's so large for Paris, the bed is a comfy queen and you can actually move your arms in the shower. It also has a small balcony as we're up on the top level amongst the roof. Very cool.
We freshen up and make our way on the metro out to Port de la Villette. We're off to see Anohni from Antony and the Johnson's and the solo show 'Hopelessness'. It was on in Sydney earlier this year at Vivid but we missed it as we were flying out for this trip (yes, it's been that long). As luck would have it its here for one night only as are we! It's on at the new Jean Nouvel designed Philharmonie de Paris, a controversial large and expensive performance space. I quite like the building, particularly in the Parc de Villette setting. It sits well amongst the dense trees and the bright red follies of Bernard Tschumi that dot the park.
We head into the theatre. I get a beer for me and a Coke for sim and we make our way into the theatre only to be told that you cannot drink inside. We wait at the door along with lots of other people who were told the same and I skull my beer. The show starts with a big screen behind the stage playing a video of Naomi Campbell dancing in black and white to the sound of eeery music and smoke machines. It goes for 15minutes or so. Why did I skull my beer? The show then starts with 2 DJs either side of stage and a different video of a large blood soaked face lip-syncing to Anohnis voice, who's singing off stage somewhere. After the first song Anohni appears in a White cloak and a black face mask under. He stays like this for the whole show. It's a very atmospheric and moody performance. Abstract and quirky to say the least. Still I really like his voice. It's so different and evocative. It's kind of operatic-alternative-blues meets soul. Sim is slightly confused by the show I can tell but tells me she's enjoying herself still.
The inside of the theatre is impressive also, although it's much smaller than the outside of the building would suggest.
After an hour and 15minutes of what was an intense musical and visual performance the show ends. That was pretty deep and conceptual.
We head out of the theatre and the sun is down but it's still not quite dark yet and it's 10pm. Such long days here. We wander around the building and then through Parc de la Villette. It's interesting coming back here in summer. I remember it from our trip of two and half years ago, it was quite barren and lifeless then. But now, even at 10pm there's people out kicking footballs, having drinks and finishing up their picnics as well as joggers and cyclists. The Tschumi follies are lit up now too and take on an a different and interesting sculptural quality.
We head to the metro and head back to Poisonniere where we get some pizza nearby. It's 11 and there not many options around. It's nice, but pizza the French way you could say. It's funny how the French cannot do pizza the same as Italians, and the Italians cannot do croissants like the French. We had a croissant in Italy that was like Panettone but in the shape of a croissant. Very funny. It's a case of just because it looks the same, doesn't necessarily mean it taste the same.
On that note,
mat + sim
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