Then it was le petit-déjeuner dans le café, croissants and more café to wake up. The crossing took only three and a half hours – bon!

On arrival in Dinan and after a nice drive on French roads we got to the house and unpacked. Then it was off to le supermarché for provisons and le très expensive French wine. Returning to le maison we changed and jumped onto our trusty steeds for a ride around Dinan. Dinan est une belle ville. It’s steeped in history. It has huge ramparts most of the way around and spectacular views over a river valley running through it. A large viaduct crosses the river and helps to keep the harbour free of traffic. In town the only problem is that there are lots of cobbled streets – ouch! Out of town le terrain is hilly and a bit of a challenge to us mere Essex Roadies as we don’t see inclines that much, however, the roads are also very smooth. The road over the viaduct we later found out was to feature on the tour route on day three.

Dinan had hosted the tour before and there were some tributes to its passing. We also learnt that a five times tour winner lived not too far away. That evening we had a lovely meal – pasta avec du boeuf et le bolognaise prepared by our resident chef – Monsieur Paul washed down avec vin rouge et vin rose.

We laid our plans over breakfast to catch le tour between Brest and Plumelec. We decided to watch it not far from the finish. This was part drive and ride in action. Having loaded our bikes onto the car we set off to arrive at a small hamlet called Noyal – Pontivy about twelve miles away from the route. Like most French villages this was deserted except for a wedding fashion shoot taking place outside the church. We stayed clear of that one.

We got to the route on time, so we thought, but had actually missed the tour caravan which had just passed through. We stopped on a hilly section to await the peloton and sat on the Armco barriers – this is painful. The weather was fine but with a slight hint of rain on the horizon – typically Breton (translated to ‘Little Britain’ without Lou and Andy we guessed). The outriders came into view first – these are the Police motorcyclists checking that the way ahead is clear for the approaching peloton. The helicopters came next – buzzing around like demented mosquitoes. Some bore cameras for the great shots you see when televised.

Then, all fired up, and just imagining we were tour riders we jumped back on our bikes for the return trip to the car. We tried!

That evening we went into the port of Dinan and feasted on moules avec de la crème. Not forgetting le vin rouge to wash it all down.

After some planning once again over breakfast we set off to see le troisieme étage running northwards between Auray and St Brieuc. We drove again with the bikes on top and in our cycle gear.this time to a little hamlet called le Bodeo. We wanted to catch the riders piling through Corlay. An arrival we blasted through the town to the delight of the crowds, just like tour riders – particularly in our Essex Roads clothing which looks a treat! Maybe people thought we were the warm-up act, maybe we were?

We soon settled at a nice spot, and within two minutes we were talking to a South African guy who used to live in Stock, Essex – the next town on from Billericay. He’d moved to France to work - amazing. The world is a small place really and it was nice to chat. By this time the weather had started to turn and a light drizzle was falling. We got into whatever protective clothing we had and waited in diminishing temperatures for the caravan to appear. Amazingly, Dave had brought the full weather gear – hat, coat, and leggings. We couldn’t help thinking that there was a certain resemblance to a flower pot man named Bill – it didn’t go down too well. See what you think. The funny vehicles soon piled through and these were roughly the same sponsors as in previous years with some exceptions.

Tony managed to be in exactly the right place – being showered with free bags, hats, pens and sweets from some very nice looking females – now what does he have that we haven’t eh? Being the generous guy that he is he handed most of his catch to some excited kids with their parents from the UK standing right next to us. They were on holiday and had been caught up with the event as many often do. He kept the free sausages to himself though and these became part of our dinner later on – viva la tour eh.

Soon the breakaway ahead of the peloton was with us and we counted off the seconds to the main bunch some way behind. In a whirr of cranks and hovering helicopters above – it was gone, and with no further purpose the crowd stood down and split the scene for some cover. As the riders had came through Dave got lucky with a great picture of the yellow jersey, which was very fortunate.

We of course had to cycle back to the car but the weather changed again. Cette soir, our resident chef Monsieur Paul cooked us another delight and we settled down later around the TV trying to understand what the programs were all about.

After taking up further residence on top of a handy bus stop we waited for le caravan and then the following riders. Another breakaway had formed but the gap this time was short. This is Breton Country full of hills and wind from the coast. Although classed as flat it’s hard for any cyclist to hold their speed over such terrain. Breakaways have to be fast to be effective and riders look to extend the gap as much as possible before lasting to the finish line. However, a last minute slow down where each rider left in the remnants of the breakaway is trying to jump the other to the finish line can be dangerous particularly when the peloton is bearing down upon them.