Bastille Day edition: Tour de France: Stage 12: Luchon to Carcassonne
July 14th 2006 06:59
Bonjour tout le monde!!
The first order of the day is to wish everyone a Happy Bastille Day!!!! Today (being the 14th of July) is France’s national holiday or Fête Nationale (as the day is known in French). It commemorates the storming of the Bastille Prison on 14th July 1789, which was a symbolic uprising against absolute monarchy and represented the first steps towards self-government, democracy and the First Republic.
Prise de la Bastille (Storming the Bastille). A painting by Jean-Pierre Louis Laurent Houel (this picture is public domain and can be found at wikipedia.org)
For a full explanation of the storming of the Bastille in 1789, click here. This will take you to one of my other posts about the Bastille. If you want more information, click on the two links below:
www.senat.fr – All you need to know on Bastille Day (but it's in French)
Modern day celebrations usually include a parade through Paris, including military and non-military units, as well as parties and balls.
Back to the Tour de France. Australian Cadel Evans finished 4th in this stage. He was part of the early breakaway group and has moved up to 4th place overall. Michael Rogers is now in 7th place. Frenchman Cyril Dessel lost the yellow jersey and also lost the polka-dot jersey. Until today, I’d never heard of the polka-dot jersey
Because the part of the Tour de France falls on la Fête Nationale, the French riders always try their hardest to win that particular stage. And this year, that part is Stage 12. Stage 12 is another mountain journey which is 212 kilometres long and goes from Luchon to Carcassonne. It has four categorised climbs.
Bagnères-de-Luchon (or Luchon) is a fashionable resort town in the Haute-Garonne département in south-western France. It is a place famous for its thermal springs, which were used by the Romans and modern day visitors alike. (You can still see evidence of both people: Roman ruins and a large casino)
A picture of Carcassonne restored by Viollet-le-Duc (this picture is licensed under the Free Art Agreement and can be found at wikipedia.org)
Carcassonne, on the other hand, is a fortified French town in the Qude department. It is located about 90 kilometres south-east of Toulouse and can be found in the gap between the Pyrenees Mountains and the Massif Central (an elevated region in the middle of France, consisting of mountains and plateaus). It is a fortified city, whose walls consist of a double ring of ramparts and 53 different towers.
For more info on these towns look up the links below:
Luchon’s official tourism website
Carcassonne’s official website
That’s it for today. Happy Bastille Day!!!!
À demain
Melinda
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