The Tour went right by our village, only wayyyy down at the bottom of the valley. So we chose to drive to the nearby town of Les Mosses to see them at the end of a long climb.
The hill continued to fill with people as the day progressed. Thankfully, we were able to keep ourselves entertained, buying Tour de France stuff, collecting tons of free giveaways from sponsors, getting chalk from the Lance Armstrong- live strong campaign and then writing on the road with our chalk! We were hoping that Alex's mom got to see her name on the road from the helicopter shots- but we took a picture of it anyway! I think that we were a source of entertainment for many of the other people who were waiting, some americans and Canadians came to visit- all in all, quite a festive atmosphere.
Our students were right by the road to see the race and even though we were hoping the incline would slow the riders down- the race was over (for us) in minutes! But we have lots of pictures, video and stuff from the race! We decided that it was still worth it!
The ride home was also an adventure! We were in the line to go through Les Mosses, but the line was neverending.... so we decided to take the back roads! Cows on the road, Ms. Samson (Terri) had to herd them off the road, and then the narrow winding road all they way back to Leysin. All in all, a very successful and exciting day!
We thought it would be a long day and it was… We left school at 9:15, the roads closed at 11:30 and the race supposed to come through 3:30ish. After the race the roads opened at 5:00. We were prepared! We had snacks, bag lunches, $$$ and our Canada stuff!! It was a good thing that we had scouted out parking and where we thought we wanted to see the race. We got to the area where we wanted to park and got waved into the lot-we drove the school van and so it was good to have a large spot! All the SRSS kids and 4 MMC kids were there along with the SRSS and MMC supervisors, Terri and another teacher, Veronica.
Once we got to the spot, we realized that with all the rain, the ground was really soggy! So some supervisors trekked into town to buy garbage bags to sit on. That proved to be a very good decision! It was quite muddy underfoot!
The hill continued to fill with people as the day progressed. Thankfully, we were able to keep ourselves entertained, buying Tour de France stuff, collecting tons of free giveaways from sponsors, getting chalk from the Lance Armstrong- live strong campaign and then writing on the road with our chalk! We were hoping that Alex's mom got to see her name on the road from the helicopter shots- but we took a picture of it anyway! I think that we were a source of entertainment for many of the other people who were waiting, some americans and Canadians came to visit- all in all, quite a festive atmosphere.
Our students were right by the road to see the race and even though we were hoping the incline would slow the riders down- the race was over (for us) in minutes! But we have lots of pictures, video and stuff from the race! We decided that it was still worth it!
The ride home was also an adventure! We were in the line to go through Les Mosses, but the line was neverending.... so we decided to take the back roads! Cows on the road, Ms. Samson (Terri) had to herd them off the road, and then the narrow winding road all they way back to Leysin. All in all, a very successful and exciting day!
You just MADE MY DAY!!! LOVE IT!!! I just cannot believe you were there to see the Tour!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you all had a great time ! Wish I could have been there to see it ...but it looks like Alex had fun there on my behalf! Thanks for all the pictures!