Celebrating Six Years at the Tour de France

The travel highlight of July was spending a weekend in the beautiful little town of Riquewihr, France to see the Tour de France. It also happened to be the weekend Brian and I celebrated our sixth anniversary! I have to give Laurel all the credit for planning this trip and Brian for booking our hotel. To get a good start on the drive Laurel and I took the kids in her car after lunch on Friday and the men followed after work. We checked into their apartment and let the kids run wild while we worked on dinner. Another family who is friends with Jollys also stayed at the apartment and their two girls joined the pack. It was pandemonium and I don't think Ellie's had so much fun (or stayed up so late!).

On Saturday, we packed into the Jolly's van and drove to to race site, scoring rockstar parking a few minutes' walk from where we waited for the bikers.

We packed picnic food and set out blankets to sit on. The kids kept themselves occupied with coloring and bubbles while we waited.

One of the big draws, aside from watching the actual bike racers, is the "parade" the precedes them. Now, this was no liesurely parade at 5 miles-per-hour like back in the States. The "floats" are decorated with each sponsor's logo and decorations and they go whizzing by at about 30-40 miles-per-hour. Plus, they're pelting you with promotional merchandise while pumpking dance music from their speakers. We adults formed a small barrier so the kids didn't get hit. It was so much fun and not nearly as dangerous as it sounds, but add that to the list of things we've seen in Europe that would never happen in the States.

After a little more waiting, we saw the tell-tale helicopters above signaling that the bikers were getting closer. Then... here comes the leader pack!

Very excited spectators!

The cyclers had all passed within the span of a few minutes since they had just started that day's portion of the race and weren't as spread out as you see at the end of the stage. Still, the excitement was contagious and we had a blast cheering them on.

Celebrating six years of marriage to this wonderful guy while watching the Tour de France literally race by -- a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience.

That evening, Brian and I escaped for a walk around Riquewihr and a little ice cream to celebrate our anniversary while our friends kept an eye on Ellie.

The next morning we took a little train tour of the town and surrounding vineyards.

You can see our hotel in the distance!

On a random note, storks are a big thing in Riquewihr.

Great weekend with great friends!