Stage 5 - Lorient to Quimper
This one gets a mention because people thought they were watching Love Island when they saw one of the scenes from this one. Plus, lots of greenery.
Stage 6 - Brest to Mur de Bretagne Guerlédan
Lighthouse! Sunny seaside Brittany vistas! Tractor field art installations! People at the top of churches cheering! Dead centre of town! Dam(n) wall! And Brittany. Plus, a finish fit for Dan Martin.
Stage 7 - Fougères to Chartres
This was the Tour's longest day and the riders let organisers know it riding slow and without action until the closing kilometres. So we had enough time to ponder how La Chateau de Fougères is like a real life version of a really good sandcastle we made at the beach. We were also swept along the many gorgeous grounds of the numerous surrounding chateaux.
Stage 8 - Dreux to Amiens
After Marcel Kittel's melt down after this stage, he could find lots of places to hide away from his team in this part of northern France, jam packed as it is with huge abbeys, fortifications and wedding-cake chateaux. Or how about Chateau de La Roche-Guyon which ticks both the fortification and palatial chateau boxes?
Stage 10 - Annecy to Le-Grand-Bornand
Magic scenery. And Greg van Avermaet was magic with his efforts to hold on to the yellow jersey as we hit the Alps. We want to spend six months of every year in Le Chateau de Chateauvieux even if it's not an imaginative name, but it's right on Lake Annecy and who wouldn't want to live there - it's the Sydney Harbour of French lakes.
Stage 11 - Albertville to La Rosière
The second shortest stage of the Tour went big on scenery - and racing. Some big explosions from several GC contenders but none were able to hold off Geraint Thomas from the stage win and the yellow jersey. It's not Austria but the stunning scenery still left us imagining Tomo and the rest of the SBS crew dancing around singing the "Hills Are Alive."
Stage 12 - Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Alpe d'Huez
Journeying from the deparment of Savoie to Isere, this stage rarely let up in stunning views of the peaks and valleys of the French Alps. The final 21 switchback corners tackled by the riders up the Alpe d'Huez are some of the most iconic in cycling. You can almost taste the history.
