"Tasting the Tour", part 4: Baguette Full-On!

The 100th Tour de France continued today at a blistering pace along a route that stretched 245 km (152 miles) from Givors to Mt. Ventoux with a finish up a screaming steep road to the 6100-foot top of that same mountain. OW! (For more details on the race, click this link to the official Tour de France site.)

Seeing the race over the past few days reminds me very much of my first traveling bike tour through the Loire Valley what now seems like quite a few lifetimes ago.

Wow, what an inspirational trip! Sure, I was on the bike a lot before going to France. As a younger kid, my bike was my car. But that Loire Valley trip took cycling to a whole new level. Instead of just getting me from one place to another, I learned to take in everything around me as I rode: the sights, the smells, the sounds, the subtle changes in air temperature - and road grade, and the incredible beauty of where I was and what might be around the next corner.

Then there was the food!

At the time of that trip in 1976, the dollar was incredibly strong in Europe. That meant for the price of fast food here at home, we could get fantastic gourmet meals in France, especially out in the country where prices were considerably less expensive than in the cities. And cycling from meal to meal? HEAVEN!

The first time I remember having a baguette like the one you see here was on a soccer field somewhere along our gorgeous route. We bought baguettes and fantastic local specialties - cheeses, cold cuts, liver pâté, mustard and more - to have with them in the shops surrounding the field and then were welcomed to sleep right where we were under the stars. Great!

Just click this link for a step-by-step picture book guide to Baguette Full-On! - and then have that baguette (or hunk any bread) just the way you want it.