My friends and I have been planning to go to France and Italy … sometime. We didn’t have to cancel any thing this year, because we hadn’t picked dates or made any commitments but we were dreaming. Now the pandemic is making anything more than dreaming seem very far away.
My friends are a married couple, I have known for quite awhile. I have been friends with the wife for almost 20 years and the husband is like a little brother to me now – so they are family. Traveling with them is nice. We’re all fairly similar so we generally want to do the same things or are all willing to accommodate the wishes of the others. To me – it’s all good – I am always seeing something new (just don’t make me hang out up high). And if I really don’t want to do something, I will go sit in a café to enjoy coffee and people watching. Side note: I went on their honeymoon with them – a story for later.
One of the reasons we want to go to France is to see some stage of the Tour de France. I remember watching the Tour when I was in high school. I took French for many years and watching the tour connected with me. My friends and I continue to watch the Tour every year on NBC. I love the announcing – I learn a lot about cycling for that short time. Although I probably forget the majority by the next time it comes around.
The Tour is just so enjoyable to watch. It displays the extraordinary fitness level of these cyclists (holy crap their legs are HUGE!). And the course is so varied and showcases the French countryside. MY sole quibble with the race organization is that there should be a women’s race. It is way past time. Seriously, allowing women only to participate in the La Course de Le Tour de France – a single day race. Elite female cyclists deserve the chance to race, too.
My wish is to someday just watch a mountain stage – camp out for a time on the side of a winding road and watch them go by. While a descent would be exciting – it would go by so fast. Maybe an ascent would be more enjoyable for viewing. Maybe if we ventured out early enough we could get a summit spot – best of both worlds.
For 2020 the race was delayed until August 29th – about a two month delay. They have a lot of rules and regs in place to help prevent outbreaks. Whole teams could be sent home, if some portion of them get COVID-19. They also reserve the right to outright cancel the tour. It would be so disappointing but if it has to happen, I will choose to be happy they got to run some of it.
Speaking of best laid plans – earlier this year, my friend had very concrete plans to go to Latvia with her father in May 2020. To get a tour, a very personal history lesson, maybe even to meet family for the first time. And now, due to COVID-19, sadly, they had to kiss it goodbye. The airline was great and gave them a full refund because they’d booked directly with them. They were NOT able to get the hotels costs back because they booked with a aggregate booking site – I forget which one. I understand that those sites are there to make money; however – a global pandemic and lock down seems like a nice time to be kind to your customers. I know that I will remember in the future that booking direct may be a better choice – whenever we’re able to travel again.