La Belle France

My husband and I have finished our annual three-week visit to France -- a vicarious road trip watching the televised Tour de France. Notwithstanding drug and doping scandals (unfortunate at best, a death knell for the Tour at worst), this three-week spectacle that starts in various places (London this year) and follows various routes (including dodging into adjacent countries) always ends up on the Champs-Elysées in Paris (right). It is not just a tour; it's a grand tour.

We don't follow too many other televised sports, but we are religious about watching the Tour de France. We started watching the Outdoor Life Network when Lance Armstrong blazed to victory after victory on the US Postal Team. Lance retired after his seventh win, OLN is now Versus and US Postal became the Team Discovery -- and will probably be something else next year.

We have been around France many times with commentators Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, the former a veteran cycling commentator and the latter once a racer himself, plus Bob Roll, Al Trautwig, Robbie Ventura and others. With them and the competitors, we have traveled at bike-racing speed through wonderful cities, the achingly beautiful countryside, the raw Alpine peaks and the precipitous Pyreneean mountains -- passing chateaux, vineyards and castle ruins. Tainted Tour or not, fans not only crowded on the high passes during mountain stages, at the finish lines of every stage and naturally, along the Champs-Elysees, but they also lined much of the 2,000-mile routeas the riders raced through villages and past farm fields and pastures. Hopefully, we'll vicariously take a tour of France next year with the riders and TV crew of the Tour de France.