Since I arrived in Lille, France for the finish of Stage 4, I have been travelling almost non-stop. Today we drove 8 hours and arrived at our hotel in time to see the end of Stage 15 in St Lary Soulan in the Pyrenees. (spoiler alert) What a tragic end for the brave breakaway! Congratulations to the Norwegian phenomenon Alexander Kristoff with his second stage win.
Took my camera and my wallet and walked into the village. At last! The France you see on television when you watch the Tour de France. I walked from one end to the other enjoying the Sunday afternoon summer crowd. I stopped at Nos Tapas du Terroir for a simple and delicious meal of bread, cheese and cured ham thinly sliced. It is the first great quality meal I have enjoyed in over a week. 
The hotel Mercure St Lary is positively luxurious after the ski lodge in Albertville. I feel like I can finally truly rest, relax and recover. Tomorrow is a rest day for the Tour cyclists. All of the Thomson cyclists will be arriving (something like 63!) and they have a “warm up” ride of either 38 or 58 km with some uphill. So glad to be a VIP spectator. Jacinta and Jordi will be rolling in by lunch time with a new group of spectators. I already miss my Australian and American friends from the Alps and I look forward to making new friends.
The best part of a rest day is there is nothing pressing to do–well, some laundry. I have put in a request for a massage in the afternoon. I will do some more exploring on foot. Mostly I will let my molecules catch up with one another.
americanjulie.com 
Looks like a lot of fun Julie! Tiring, right? But fun nonetheless. And it’s great to follow along here.
Yes it is a lot of fun. Today though I hit a new low. Tomorrow we are back on the Tour with Stage 16 finish and it will all be good. Nice group of people joined us in the Pyrenees.