Why the Tour de France is so popular

The Bretagne and Normandie tourist boards couldn't possibly have bought the wonderful coverage they got over the two stages of the Tour de France. The weather was fantastic for "our" stage and the next day the TV coverage couldn't get enough views of the Mont St. Michel in a sparkling sea.

The Tour de France's 20 stages are seen by around 10 million people each year. From the outside it always seems as if everyone wants to get close to the dramatic action; the reality of course is rather different ...

Two hours before the riders depart the Caravane gets going, this is the procession of uniquely French commerces advertising their products and services in imaginative, strange and frankly bizarre ways. The reason many people go to watch Le Tour is to get the free giveaways that are passed, thrown or hurled from the various elaborately modified vehicles in the caravane. I've seen families at the roadside chase all over the pavement for these freebies, collect their spoils into a shopping bag, jump into their cars and head off home before any cyclist is within 30km.

We do go for the cycling but on Tuesday we seemed to have got ourselves in a prime spot for the freebies - either that or our union flag was being used for target practice as several items landed directly on our chairs without us needing to pick up or catch them.

Here's our entire haul:

In no particular order it was:

• A Carrefour King of the Mountains cap
• 2 Skoda sunhats
• A copy of the paper Aujourd'hui (scary title: "Sarkozy revient")
• An ERDF beer bottle cooler
• A packet of Belin tomato and mozzarella snacks
• Festina wine gums
• A packet of madeleines
• Haribo sweets 
• Le Journal de Mickey Mouse
• 2 copies of an Alcatel mobile phone promotion
• A "welcome to Yorkshire" wrist band (the 2014 tour starts in Yorkshire)
• A Moi, Moche et Méchant 2 facemask (it's a film ,,,)
• An Etap hotel inflatable cushion
• A postcard of the French cyclist Thomas Voeckler
• A promotion voucher for Courtepaille restaurants
• A pack of Kléber fridge magnets
• A copy of Ouest France in a matching bag with a matching flag
• A packet of mini dried sausages
• A clothes washing liquid sample
• A Cofidis keyring
• A Luxembourg keyring (no idea ......)
• A sovenir copy of L'Equipe 
• 3 bottles of Vittel water
• A copy of Vittel's "Eau-ficial" newspaper

Le Tour en Bretagne

We went to cheer on Chris Froome in yellow today - got a good spot just on the way out of St. Nicolas de Redon:

Horses - on the Tour de France .... ?

Giant Truck tyre anyone ?

Fortunately this didn't happen when the race was crossing

Here they come .....

There is a corner of a foreign railing that is forever supporting Sky Procycling

The obligatory five man breakaway out front by 4 minutes

Sky leading Chris Froome at the front of the Peloton

Backmarker

Fortunately no-one was in the broom wagon today ....

A sad day

Our little community has suffered a devastating and tragic loss.

Yesterday morning Nicole came round very early in floods of tears to tell us that our neighbour and her father-in-law, Lucien, had been killed the previous afternoon in a road accident. He had been cycling to Questembert to collect his car from the garage when he was hit by a lorry.

Lucien was the first person to come round to welcome us when we moved here, bringing a basket of plums; he was my go-to person for any advice on gardening and he was a pillar of our village. We saw him in his garden nearly every day - even if we didn't have a chat he always looked out for us and waved.

The story behind what happened is just so sad. There is a great bunch of "Vieux gars" who we meet regularly at Claudette's Fete de la Village which took place last Sunday. One of these is Armandin who is 80 and lost his wife last winter; during the fete he was responsible for producing carafes of wine at regular intervals - "I'm not a sommelier, just a caviste" he said when I complemented him on his standard of service. Lucien was 76 and led the team of chefs on the barbeque at the fete; the day afterwards Lucien was going to drive Amandin to Beauvais, near Paris, to stay with his sister for a week. They got as far as Questembert (about 10km away) when Lucien's car developed a problem and they had to leave it at a garage and get a taxi back. Lucien was on his way to get the car to restart the trip when he was killed.

We will miss him enormously.