Have you ever watched live?
I took my Mom to Provence and Paris in 2009. We saw two stages. The penultimate one (on the Col des Abeilles, which isn't too terribly far from Mont Ventoux) and then raced to Avignon to catch the evening train to Paris and saw them in Paris the next day. Not on the Champs Elysee but on the Quai de Montebello, the stretch before they cross the Seine - we stood directly in front of Notre Dame in other words. We got so lucky in both places. A climb on the first one, but not as popular as Mont Ventoux AND we had a local show us a "back door" way to get to the mountain/site where we watched which meant easy access, and, in Paris I am so thankful we were not on the Champs and in fact lucked into getting "trapped" where we did.
In Paris we decided to sightsee in the morning and then eventually amble somewhere to watch (which in general is a bad idea). We had lunch on the Ile St Louis and then walked across the bridge near Notre Dame and realized we couldn't cross the street. I think we were going to drop something at the hotel and then head out. We quickly realized the only metro stop that would take us anywhere was a good stroll away and bound to be miserably crowded so we walked along the Seine until finding a empty shaded spot on the street out in front of it. This was perhaps 130 PM if that, and the riders didn't come through until roughly 4 PM-ish give or take.
The slideshow has them out of order for some reason, but, here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/skywalk...tags/tdf/show/
SO MUCH FUN! I am hankering to go back and make an entire vacation out of trailing parts of the tour. I think I'd probably make two trips out of it: one trip to do reconnaissance and the next to actually plunk and watch. Or not. It must be a lot of fun to be on the selection committee. It has to be a huge schmooze fest!
