The “Tour de Charm”

This year, we’ve been watching the Tour de France by streaming it each afternoon, as if we lived in France and have had a pleasurable experience so far. 

As usual, camera work and the editing are great, even though NBC, where we get the delayed reporting from, doesn’t care about telling its viewers too much about the scenic beauties of France and focuses much more on the race nuts and bolts, its few “Anglo” racers, and fails to delve into the intricacies of the strategies and tactics this complex sporting event uses.

That’s a part of the “Tour” keep on learning about as we go and will probably never become experts on the subject, but a bit of remaining ignorance will be fine. 

Of course, we also get caught into the spectators’ excitement, frenzy and unruliness at the top of most climbs, as well as the variety of colorful characters that pepper the gallery... We love to recognize a few of the places where we grew up or have traveled to when we were in France, and this part is always the “cherry on the cake”. 

As sport people we respect and admire what these guys are producing on a daily basis, yet don’t envy them one bit. When all is said and done, this is the best advertising piece France could dream of, and we’re proud of seeing our home-country showcased in such a classy way!