Tour de France: The Finale: Stage 20: Sceaux-Antony to Paris
July 23rd 2006 07:52
Bonjour tout le monde!
Well, three weeks of riding and writing by yours truly comes down to this. Tonight, we will see the last stage in this year’s Tour de France. It’s been a long three weeks, but some positions are still up for grabs. I know I said earlier that Stage 19 (as the last individual time trial) often decides the winner, the yellow jersey may still change hands, especially if the times between the top 5 competitors are close.
The Ukraine’s Serhiy Honchar won Stage 19, but most importantly American Floyd Landis reclaimed the yellow jersey from Oscar Pereiro. According to some commentaries, it looks like he may win the Tour, but I still reckon it’s not over ‘til it’s over. Oscar Pereiro is now 59 seconds behind Landis, while the closest Aussie, Cadel Evans, is 5 minutes off the pace in 5th position. Michael Rogers is still in 10th position.
Stage 20: the stage where France stands still (well, maybe just cycling fans). This last journey is 155 kilometres long, starting at Sceaux-Antony and ending in Paris on the Champs-Elysées.
Sceaux is a name used for many towns in France, so this particular town is known as Sceaux-Antony. It can be found in the southern suburbs of Paris and is only located 9.7 kilometres from the city centre. It is actually a rather elite area: housing prices are rather expensive and the main street of Sceaux (rue Houdan) has many luxury boutiques. I suppose the main attraction is the Château of Sceaux, a castle rebuilt in the 19th century (it was originally destroyed in the Revolution), which can be found in the large park: le Parc départmental de Sceaux. For more information, look up Sceaux’s official site which can be found by clicking here. (The downside: it’s in French)
Chateau de Seaux found in the Parc de Seaux (this picture is licensed under the Creative Commons Agreement. It was taken by Philippe and can be found on wikipedia.org)
The 2006 Tour de France will finish in its traditional place: the Champs-Elysées in Paris. I have already written extensively about Paris (these articles you can find by clicking on the Paris category on the left hand side of this post and by searching through this blog’s archives. So instead of giving you another run down on Paris, I thought I’d share with you some info on the Champs-Elysées.
L’avenue des Champs Elysées (as it is formally known) is perhaps one of the most famous streets in the world. Its name literally means “Elysian Fields” Avenue, where the Elysian Fields is a place which features in Greek and Roman mythology. The Champs-Elysées is basically the life line of Paris: it runs for 2 kilometres through the 8th arrondissement and is located near many Parisian tourist attractions, including the Arc de Triomphe (at its western end), the Presidential Palace, gardens, theatres, cinemas, thousands of restaurants and, of course, those expensive boutiques. It’s a beautiful street just to walk down if, like me, you don’t want to spend the earth in Paris. To plan your walk, click here to find Google Maps map of Paris.
The Champs Elysees, looking west towards the Arc de Triomphe (picture is licensed under the GNU Agreement and can be found at wikipedia.org)
Ok. That’s it for today. We’ll have a rest day tomorrow and be back on Tuesday with a brand new French travel destination.
À mardi
Until Tuesday
Melinda
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