The Tour Is Here!

Watching the prologue And the rain came down!
You have no doubt heard of the Tour de France, cycling's premier event of the year...Well last night saw the beginning of the close second: Tour de Guadeloupe! 10 days of passion, intrigue, heat...or was that Les Feux de l'Amour? Well, lots of heat and hills anyway.

This is one of Bertie's favourite events so last night we headed off with the kids to watch the Prologue in Pointe-à-Pitre. This involved watching 130 or so cyclists zoom past at at top speed, whilst we enjoyed our bokits (kind of large round fried bread with a filling of chicken or tuna or dry cod, lavishly spread with mayo or ketchup) and sinobols (grated ice with sirop de menthe or grenadine - so refreshing!).

Amazing what you find on Google images - here they are! I am not quite sure of the legalities of using photos from the web but click on the images and you will see where they are from.

Bokit - creole hamburger apparently

Sinobol
As with our previous visits, the heavens opened and so did the umbrellas, but the cyclists bravely sped on. Bertie and his sister were delighted that two of their locals sped their way to victory.

You may wonder how exactly they manage to make the tour last 10 days over such a small island? Fair point! The routes are repeated and don't reach the 220 km of the Other Tour, I think 70 km is the longest. But they have my respect for cycling in this heat! Later in the week they will pass through our town and we will no doubt be out in force to watch them pass.

BTW On my first visit here in 2000 I actually appeared on Guadeloupe TV whilst watching the Tour on someone's roof! Fame!