I got back yesterday from France.

It was one heck of a ride. Toulouse, hot as it is, is a great city, and the Pyrénées are beautiful as well. The only real disappointment is the Cité de l’Espace, which I think would be more fun if I were ten to fifteen years younger. Or ten euro cheaper.

It was amazing to be there for the Tour. The lack of sleep as trucks roll by, horns blaring at all hours of the night, while meanwhile I’m freezing under a British Airways blanket on a beach towel in a ditch on the side of the road, then the waiting all through the morning, accompanied only by the local French language paper and the Aquarel caravanne preview paper, also in French, and whatever reading I brought with me, which quickly runs out. The sun breaks over to my side of the road, finally, and the temperature swings thirty degrees in ten minutes, eventually warming to what must have been over 100°F. Finally, early afternoon, some official cars start rolling through. All of a sudden, the caravanne has arrived! I collect my schwag, and then I wait again. Everyone looks down the road as more team and official cars go breezing by. Then two gendarmes on motorcycles. I already know who is up front; Levi Leipheimer’s brother, whose family I camped next to, has been checking on the TV on the RV parked across the road, and he is happy that it is fellow Gerolsteiner rider Georg Totchnig, though there is a detectable feeling of disappointment that it couldn’t be his teammate Levi. But that’s racing.

And behind the red cars, there he is. The stage leader. Then boom! He is gone.

A couple minutes behind, three riders: Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso. They breeze by.

Then individual riders, and perhaps groups of two. Levi Leiphemier. Michael Rasmussen. Haimar Zubeldia. Others. After a time, the peloton finally rolls through. More dropped riders. I cheer every one, because any one of them could drop me like a rock on a flat road, much less one with a 10.5% maximum grade. Finally, the autobus rolls in, with Thor Hushovd safely in the pack clothed in green. A few more riders. By now half of the riders in the Tour have come back down the mountain, rolling downhill as their compatriots struggle up, to meet the team busses in Ax-les-Thermes. Are these last riders within the time limit? How long has it been, anyways?

Finally the last couple of cars in the Tour train come through, with the sweeper van proudly proclaiming, in French, “End of the Course,” on a European-style road sign with the red slash through it just to make the point. And that’s it, the Tour has ended for us. Amateurs mount their bicycles as the few remaining pros try to descend safely with them. And the Tour autotrain starts to descend as well, the ceremonies having long ago been completed.

As I myself descend from my place nearly 8 km up the mountainside, all that remains of the Tour by the time I reach the base are the km-to-go banners, and a couple of gendarmes.

I had changed my mind about camping out the second night. The excitement of the Tour got me through the first cold night, but I didn’t look forward to a cold, lonely evening. After finding there were no rooms in Ax-les-Thermes, I got my train ticket changed to leave that night for Toulouse and went back to the hotel in which I had stayed before. Turns out I ended up in the same room (Hôtel D’Orsay, room 507, near Toulouse Matabiau-Gare SNCF, the train station). I slept solidly that night.

So I made it back to Oxford exactly when I anticipated.

Newest addiction that is sucking away my life: Sudoku puzzles. I’ve done two, including the “difficult” level one in The Independent on Sunday, which I picked up when I landed at Gatwick so I’d have something to do while I waited for the coach and then rode the coach for the two hours it takes to get back to Oxford. I think it took me about an hour to solve today. Like I said, sucking away my life.

Last weekend, in lieu of hitting London multiple times:

Friday, Salisbury and nearby Stonehenge. Stonehenge wasn’t really on my list of things to see, and as I thought, it wasn’t all that impressive. Impressive is how it was constructed, not what it was for or what is left standing, in my opinion. Salisbury is a nice enough town, with a nice enough cathedral.

Saturday, things having settled down, I went with some people to London. After leaving them at Buckingham so they could watch the Changing of the Guard, I went off to do my own thing, rolling up to Mornington Crescent station, then back to the London Transport museum at Covent Garden (though the nearest Tube station was closed, along with most of the Piccadilly line), then I looked at Westminster Abbey from the outside, since it was closed to the public for the day.

Followed this with a quick tour of the Tower of London (did it in one hour, whew) and a DLR trip to Greenwich to see the National Maritime Museum (OK) and the Royal Observatory (awesome).

Met the group back at the Imperial War Museum, went to dinner at a reasonably-priced place in Soho (Cafe Emm), then caught the bus for home.

Sunday, I went to York. And I forgot my camera, so I had to buy a disposable when I got there. But it’s a cool town. Saw Clifford’s Tower, which is all that’s left of the castle, walked along the city wall, had a pint of Yorkshire Terrier, saw York Minster, the largest Gothic church in England, went to the Yorkshire Museum, walked a bit more of the city walls, and finally visited the excellent National Railway Museum.

(Yes, yes, I’m skimping on details. Boo-hoo.)

Finally, tomorrow I depart the UK for the weekend to visit southern France, flying into Toulouse in the Midi-Pyrénées and then taking the train on Friday into the high mountains of the Ax region. Saturday, I shall see the Tour de France. I fly back Sunday morning, and will get back to Oxford in the midafternoon. Once I recover from the inevitable sleep deprivation I’ll be sure to write all about it.

I’ve gotten photos titled from departure through Pisa. Of course, now I’m behind on weekend photo processing. Sigh. Still, for those of you entirely lost by my Florence pictures, you can now have your thirst for knowledge sated.

All participants in the Oxford program are OK, since we were all still here when the blasts took place. Plans to visit London are being rejiggered since Zone 1 is essentially shut down to public transport, and there is a nonzero risk of follow-up attacks.

For more information, see:
BBC (newest at top)
Europhobia (newest at bottom)
The Command Post

After much not-getting-them-done, I’ve finally got caught up on photos up through the Continental part of my trip, that is to say, Paris and Bruges are now processed.

I haven’t taken many photos in England yet, though I have a couple from Oxford and my first London trip–bloody weather. Look forward to those, more from London, and Toulouse, Ax, and the Tour. And anything else I happen to end up doing.

Remember that if you’ve missed anything, you can get all my photos from the summer conveniently organized by city from my gallery. Soon, I will start going through and labeling the photos, but these things take time, y’know.

I’m going to France in a little over a week now to see the Tour de France, and perhaps Lance kicking butt on the climbing finish to Ax-3-Domaines. Tickets are booked on EasyJet for Toulouse & back on the 14th and 17th. And the SNCF train to Ax-Les-Thermes from there late on the 15th. I’ll be camping the night before and after the 14th stage on the road from Ax-Les-Thermes to Ax-3-Domaines, about 10k up the mountain. The preceeding Friday I’ll spend in Toulouse. I wanted to visit Airbus but the tour company is only doing tours in French on the day that I am there so besides the standard looking around I’ll probably head to the Cité de l’Espace, which is a sort of space-education-museum-thing. They have an Ariane 5 outside so it can’t be all bad.

Last Saturday I daytripped London to visit a few things that I probably wouldn’t get to see (or see enough of) with other people. Went to the Cabinet War Rooms/Churchill Museum and spent nearly four hours at the Imperial War Museum, which combined took care of any WWII-history hankerings I’ve been having. I also got to catch part of the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham (before I got bored), walked across London Bridge so I could look at the much more famous Tower Bridge, visited Trafalgar Square, and went to Hamley’s, the world’s largest toy store. It looks like I’ll be doing a full weekend in London this weekend with a few friends, but since we’re driving in each day because it’s cheaper than booking rooms in London I might do a daytrip or two by rail, depending on how long it takes me to see what I want to see in London.

Classes are fine. Lots of reading for history (surprise) and the primary textbook is somewhat…convoluted…but I’m getting through it. The econ class has pretty interesting material. I know know one of the ways to make money in the foreign exchange market (taking advantage of currency price differentials in different markets), though we haven’t covered the more complicated stuff yet, except for a brief mention of Soros’ (in)famous pound bet.

Electrical outlets in Great Britain have not given me any trouble whatsoever.