On the Heels of the Tour de France

Seems to me that once you stop blogging for a while it can get hard to start again! Sorry for the long gap.  I reckon I got out of the habit while I was away on my bike, travelling very light, for most of last month. T and I cycled from London to Co. Durham, then back across to Whitby and finally down to Scarborough, where we loaded the bikes on the trains and came back to London.  We saw so many things I'm still digesting it all!

We covered quite a lot of the route which the Tour de France took (not while the cyclists were racing there, luckily). I don't follow any sports, so at first I was wondering why we kept passing so many window displays with a French theme, such as this one in Saffron Walden, Essex.  (which by the way is a great town, one which I hope to post about later)

"WHAT is all this about bikes and berets and moustaches and strings of onions?" I asked myself, as I passed shop window after shop window ....

Finally I learned what everyone else in the country knew, that the Tour de France cyclists would be cycling southwards down from Yorkshire, and to my surprise I realised we were following much of the route (in reverse and very much slower) northwards through England.   Would we meet them on the way? I hoped not. When we reached Cambridge, which was expecting them in a couple of days, it was bristling with "No Bike Parking" signs and it was clear that if we got in the way of these top sportsmen, we would be mown down, swamped in the crush of bodies, etc.

When we did arrive in York, they'd just left.  I was so impressed by the decorations along the route in the suburb of Bishopsthorpe, that I took some photos of them.  I thought they were remarkably creative. Which one do you like best?

I liked these ladies chatting on the doorstep and one of them had really gone to town. Look at the windows - little jerseys and bikes as well as everything else, and the front wall too.

Can anyone anyone explain this one? My guess is that it refers to a cyclist from Mauritius, since the dodo is the symbol of that French speaking country.  I love dodos and this was a very cleverly made one.

No doubt the idea that Sheffield is 200 KM away is just an encouragement to the sporty cyclists!  But I am wondering what the round things like fried eggs are on this patchworked banner. Or perhaps they are eyes. Or breasts......

The midwife who delivered my second child puffed and down the hills on her bike with a couple of oxygen cylinders on the back. But this one appears to have a baby in the basket. Not a real one, I am sure. 

I liked this garden gate

And slightly wondered why someone had dressed their tree in yellow net

Local builders had done their bit by stencilling bikes on a house they were renovating

And what a lot of work, threading this ribbon through painted bike wheels to create this striking impression

This florist shop went completely mad on its eye catching bike display, those look like the kind of hand made paper chains we used to make for Christmas, as kids - it was a lot of fun.

This butcher was advertising his wares in French

Even the toilet arrangements paid tribute to the French theme

"The Swan" pub had given itself a revamp for the occasion with a beer barrel in the colours of the French flag

on a new sign painted for the occasion.  Now that IS impressive! I wonder if they will keep it.

Several houses has combined to create a large arrow in their windows, just in case the cyclists got lost....

And even on a rather grey day the flags made a cheerful sight, fluttering as far as you could see. 

I don't know York but I'd guess Bishopsthorpe is a good place to live. It seemed to have community spirit and a lot of interesting and involved local businesses, and I certainly noticed it and stopped a lot, rather than just cycling through