Tour de France: Stage 13: Béziers to Montélimar
July 15th 2006 06:28
Bonjour tout le monde!!
I’m glad I didn’t predict that a Frenchman would win yesterday’s stage; otherwise I would’ve been laughed at. Instead, Yaroslav Popovych of the Ukraine won Stage 12. The closest Frenchman Christophe le Mével came in 4th and Aussie Robbie McEwen finished 6th. Cadel Evans and Michael Rogers maintain their positions in the overall rankings (4th and 7th respectively) and as far as I know McEwen still has the Green Jersey (His closest rival Oscar Freire is 25 points behind).
Stage 13 is really long compared to recent rides at 230 kilometres. The Stage contains five Category 4 climbs and goes from Béziers to Montélimar.
St. Nazaire Cathedral and Pont Vieux in Béziers (this picture is licensed under the GNU Agreement and can be found at wikipedia.org)
Béziers is a town in Hérault département in south-western France. It is located on a small hill above the Orb river, at the place where the Canal du Midi stretches across the river. The area has been occupied by several different groups throughout history, including the Celts and the Romans, but I suppose some things never change…Béziers has always been the major centre of viticulture and winemaking industries of the Languedoc area.
(FYI – Languedoc refers to the southern area of France as it was divided in the middle ages. The northern half was referred to as the Languedoi region. The names refer to the way the locals said ‘yes.’ In the south they said “oc,” in the north “oi.” Langue d’oc literally means “Language of ‘oc.’” Crazy hey?)
Montélimar is a town in the Drôme département: the second largest of the département behind Valence. However, the main draw card of Montélimar is its world famous nougat!!!!! Unfortunately, you can now buy the nougat in many places around Provence, so travellers choose to bypass Montélimar instead of stopping in. = (
For more information on these two delightful places, click on the links below:
Béziers official town site
Montélimar’s tourism site.
These web pages will give you a chance to practise your French – they’re not available in English!!!
That’s it for today. Onto Stage 14 tomorrow!!!
À demain
Melinda
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