In 2005 we had some old friends visit church and they mentioned how they had seen Le Tour de France in Paris. My husband, being an avid Tour fan was happy to listen to them recount their trip. I decided to contact my Uncle who was a retired Delta pilot and just see if there were any standby options we could use to get out to Paris. We discovered that for just under $400 total, we could fly round trip to Paris and catch the last few stages of the Tour.
That wasn’t the only hurdle. Having six children, securing child care was the hardest part! Neither of our moms were able to stay with the kiddos so when a friend dropped off our daughters purse that had mistakingly been left behind the night before, we jokingly asked if they’d want to watch our kids for a week so we could go to Paris. AND THEY SAID SURE!!!! WOW!!! So, about three weeks later,

John and I flew to Paris to see the Tour in person.

We arrived with no problems but had quite the culture shock as we stepped off the plane. Being our very first international trip on our own, and not speaking French, we stood stunned in the airport when we arrived. But after a few moments we were able to gather our bearings and figure it all out. By the end of our trip, we felt like pros!

Since the Tour was in the mountain stages when we arrived, we planned on seeing Paris and then taking a train to

St. Etienne for the stage finish, see a time trial in Lyon and then head back to Paris for the finish on the Champs Elysees.

We had bought a city pass and enjoyed all the major attractions in Paris that we wanted to see. We even rode the ferris wheel.

We missed our train to St. Etienne but had no problem renting a car and making our way to the stage ending. We even got to say hi to Chris Horner, a cyclist in the race, who had worked in a bike shop with John when we were first dating.

The time trial in Lyon was also amazing and we had front row seats to watch the start, and almost caught a picture of Lance Armstrong, but the crowd pushed and we caught just his legs as he sped by.

We showed up early to Champs Elysees to claim a good spot for the finish and had no problem being able to see. Some people had spent the night to ensure a good place to watch. Seeing the final laps to the finish was an amazing experience. Even better than the previous two stages we had witnessed, where you wait hours and hours for a 1 minute speed by.

At least they did several loops on the Champs Elysees so we had multiple opportunities to see the riders speed by.

We had a little trouble getting our of Paris as all the flights were oversold, but after extending our stay by only one day, we were able to fly standby, FIRST CLASS, home to the states. What an amazing trip that was! I believe this trip truly ignited our passion for travel.