Sunday was quite a warm day for the tour finish in Paris, clear skies and just a whisper of breeze so we went to the edge of Tuileries garden on the Seine to watch the finish of the Women's tour race which was was 13 laps of the Champs Elise course. We arrived around half way through the race having watched some earlier at the end of our cross street which was on the course. We were on an elevated position looking back towards the Grand Palais and had a really good view of the peleton flying down the road which was very exciting with the girls lapping at around 8 minutes per circuit. We cheered on Green Edge from above but their best rider was placed eighth with the Dutch girl Marianne Vos being the stage winner.

We returned to our apartment for lunch and a bit of a relax prior to the 70 metre trip back to the end of our street to watch the Tour de France finish which was fantastic. As we stood on the edge of the spectator railing we had a great view of the race as the riders stormed out of the tunnel from under the Louvre and then watched as a flight of French air force jets stormed down above the road billowing the red white and blue coloured smoke of the French flag. It was absolutely awesome as they were flying very low and took all the spectators by surprise as they roared by. It was over in seconds but will remain with us for a long time.

The racing was intense with the peleton stretched out at times due to the pace being so high and a few stragglers started to appear at the back end due to the effect of the previous three weeks of racing. We had an Aussie cheer squad near us waving the flag and encouraging Green Edge on and we found they were the family of a lovely lady from Brisbane named Sue, standing next to us, who was also urging them on at every lap. The Green Edge support car was replying by tooting their horn as they passed by. Go Green Edge.

We had a great day as the atmosphere was good with deafening noise as the riders went by followed by calm for around seven minutes until the next lap. Unfortunately it was not the best for photography as we only got a few shots of both races and a bit of video film but we will certainly remember it for a long time.

Go Green Edge and Vive Le Tour.

Note: Go to video tab to open a short clip of the race.