Tour de France

The Tour de France kicked off last weekend and for the first time in the history of 100 year old race, London was host to the Grand Départ—a three day spectacle that marks the beginning of the world’s premier cycling event. Cyclists basically took over the city, starting in Trafalgar Square and hitting every tourist attraction in the Fodor’s guide. Fodor’s may have actually been involved in the planning of the Tour—the course reads like a list of Things to Do and See While in London. It was so brilliantly laid out I was tempted to hop on a bike and follow along—I could have knocked off my entire list of sights to see in one afternoon!

For the first event, the Prologue, riders headed out from Central London past Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace, then looped around Hyde Park, up Constitution Hill, ending on the Mall with Buckingham Palace in the background. From a spectator’s perspective, the Prologue was by far the highlight of the weekend. All of those landmarks span a 7.9 kilometer route, and cyclists took turns zipping through the course, one after another, trying to beat each other’s time.

Huge, flag-waving crowds lined the sidewalks to get a glimpse of the riders and cheer on their countrymen. The Tour de France website put the number of spectators at roughly 1 million near the finish line alone. I’ll have to trust their estimate, because I was nowhere near that zoo. The stress of my first week in London, which had me working until 10pm (or later!) every night, left me completely exhausted. I slept until noon on Saturday, and when I finally woke up, the last thing I wanted to do was deal with crowds. So, being the bad tourist that I am, I decided to stay as far away from the Tour de France as possible. I went to Notting Hill instead—to an adorable little spa, hidden on a cul-de-sac, without so much as a sign on the door. The only way I knew it was from the building number in the Time Out London review. And funnily enough, there was a bicycle parked outside.