Info on ending for stage 20

Florin

How lucky you are to be able to be there on the last day!

I looked at the route on the letour.com web site, and here's what I figured out:

The route shows that it passes la Place de la Nation at km 58.0, and then 1er passage de ligne
d'arrivee (first crossing of the finish line) at km
64.5. This would indicate a spot on the Champs Elysees 6.5 km from Place de la Nation. Looking at
maps on viamichelin.com, it looks like that puts it right by the Arc de Triomphe, or Place
Charles de Gaulle/Etoile. So I think if you were to stake out a spot near the Arc de Triomphe
on the Champs Elysees, on the west side of the Arc de Triomphe, you would be ok.

Hope this helps!

Regards & have fun,

Joe

"Florin Feldman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I may lucky enough to be in Paris for the arrival, could someone please tell me where exactly on
the Champs-Elysées the race ends? And if anyone has some tips about the best places to watch the
race, I'd appreciate it. Is the top of the Arc de Triomphe open to visitors that day?

TIA,

Florin

Quoted message said:

The route shows that it passes la Place de la Nation at km 58.0, and then 1er passage de ligne
d'arrivee (first crossing of the finish line) at km
64.5. This would indicate a spot on the Champs Elysees 6.5 km from Place

de

Quoted message said:

la Nation. Looking at maps on viamichelin.com, it looks like that puts it right by the Arc de
Triomphe, or Place Charles de Gaulle/Etoile. So I

think

Quoted message said:

if you were to stake out a spot near the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees, on the west side
of the Arc de Triomphe, you would be ok.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I may lucky enough to be in Paris for the arrival, could someone please tell me where exactly on
the Champs-Elysées the race ends? And if anyone has some tips about the best places to watch the
race, I'd appreciate it. Is the top of the Arc de Triomphe open to visitors that day?

Be advised that tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of people will all be having the exact same idea
on the 27th, so the streets will have major crowds, especially near the finish line. Some metro
stations will probably be closed to limit access to key areas, and there will be police barricades
all over the place. I don't know about the top of the Arc de Triomphe but I don't think I'd count on
it being accessible. The police have major security concerns, in addition to the normal crowd
control issues. In addition it is the 100 anniversary of the Tour, so the crowds could well be
thicker than usual this year. Because of the barricades there will probably not be wackos running
alongside the riders and waving flags in their faces, however.

Friends of mine managed to get to the Champs-Elysees last year but they were a ways back from the
edge of the road (they couldn't get any closer), and said that the view of the riders wasn't so hot.
I'm not sure how early they set out, though, so you might be luckier. There are reviewing stands up
there somewhere but I'm not sure exactly where, or how you might obtain a seat in one, other than by
being the mayor of Paris, or a Trek marketing executive or other VIP type. Are you a mailman, by any
chance? (Just kidding!)

It will almost certainly be less crowded further away from the finish line, but east of the
Tuilleries the peloton will only pass by once (in a flash -- they won't be strung out like on the
mountain stages of recent days), and you will miss the ten ceremonial loops around the
Champs-Elysees, including the one in which the teams carry their national flags around the course.
OTOH away from the mobs you will probably have a chance at a better view, and you will also get to
see the whole pre-race caravan, which only goes by once in any case, and is as wacky as the race is
grueling. This takes maybe an hour to go by. In any event plan to position yourself early -- and
earlier the closer to the finish line you are aiming to be. Study the route map (it is posted on a
couple of sites) and have alternatives in mind.

As an interesting wrinkle, there is a major labor conflict simmering here in France at the moment,
over pensions for public employees and other state benefits, and one labor organizer has just
threatened that if Chirac does not "get serious" about reopening some negotiations "the Tour de
France will not arrive in Paris." This may be just hot air, and there are probably many more people
who want the Tour to finish properly than to disrupt it. But I don't know the various unions and
worker orgs well enough to say whether this threat could materialize into, say, a road-blocking
demonstration of some kind. In any event it wouldn't hurt to have a plan B just in case, and to keep
one ear on the news as the 27th approaches.

Lastly, I watched the ten loops last year from a (not-so-great) spot near the Place de la Concorde,
and an American near me wanted to know who was winning the stage. So he asked one of the nearby
gendarmes (in English) if he spoke English. The officer replied, "Yes, a little. But you're in
France now." National pride remains strong -- and it is the 100th anniversary of the Tour. So brush
up your French, and don't plan to pour Champagne on the ground in front of the gendarmes to
demonstrate your disapproval of French foreign policy :-}

Bon courage !

--AMG