Art and Cycling

Paris. I love it. I don't regret living in Lyon and stand by my decision not to live in Paris but what a wonderful city it is. I was up for a weekend trip to see the final stage of the Tour de France and meet my brother who had flown over a few days before. It was his first time in Paris and we did two things that I'd never done before so new experiences all around.

The first thing we did was go to the Centre Pompidou which is the modern/contemporary art museum. I really enjoyed it. It's wacky and cool and the great thing about modern art is that there's always going to be something you like and something you think is incredibly stupid and why on earth is it in a world famous art musuem.

Two pieces that I liked:

This first was created in two parts. In 1988 the artist created 'Container Zéro' which is the tiled box and then twenty years later (2008) he decided what it really needed was a picture of an astronaut and a styrofoam cup entitled "SPACEPOT" behind it.

This was cool because as you walked in front of it the patterns changed. It went from the squares within squares (which you can see here) to a solid block print of colour. I'm not sure if that description makes sense but it's the best I can do.So much for Saturday. Sunday we met up on the Champs-Elysées and settled in to wait for the Tour to arrive. There were plenty of other fans out (more as the day went on obviously) which afforded some good people watching.

Andy Schleck supporters:

Best Pants Ever (from the Norwegians):Once the race got underway, we could watch it (unless people got in the way) on the giant tv screen at the corner.
And then they arrived! Going really really fast. You could hear the approach from the cars driving in front, and then the roar of the crowd came towards you and then the peleton rushed past with a giant thrum of wheels on cobbles.
We did see Ryder Hesjedal (the Victoria BC rider who finished 7th overall) quite a few times because he was hanging at the end of the main field for most of it.

Soon enough it was over. We could see the sprint finish on the television as Mark Cavendish took his fifth stage victory in this year's tour.

Thor Hushovd who disappointed Norway by not winning:
Alessandro Petacchi who didn't win the stage either but did keep his green jersey:
I wish we had had the stamina to stay on the course longer because a lot of riders and teams did a ceremonial lap of the circuit after the podium presentations, but we were worn out with waiting and standing and needed food. I suppose I'll just have to come again one day. Quel dommage!