Anybody know what time they start today and on which French (or even UK) channels it is on please. I have little interest since turning out to watch locally some years ago and realised the wasted effort, all over in seconds, but, today it is coming through our village and, as I will be imprisoned here by it (no roads out) it might be nice to see it in comfort and how many arm wavers I recognise. 
ITV4 if you have it.
Itās on France 3 at 12h55 today (and every day of the tour, I believe). Then it switches to France 2 later. You get to see the whole race, from the dĆ©part fictif to the various jersey presentations at the end. Itās good for learning French too!
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Thank you both, I do have ITV4 but will choose France 3 I think for the reasons mentioned by Fleur. They are coming from Libourne to finish at Limoges and, after passing through our village and the larger one next door there is a fairly steep winding climb afterwards. We once rejected a house for sale there as it was below road level on a bend and I could foresee a heavy weight crashing through the roof one day. 
I stopped watching it in the past as I was put off by the thought of the noxious fumes exhausted by the motos weaving in and out of the riders and feared for their lungs. 
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Just been looking on the TdF website for "Green " credentials, couldnt find anything. Surely itās not beyond the realms of possiblity for the "organisers " to insist all team/support/media cars and motos are electric - after all range anxiety shouldnāt be an issueā¦should it?
I donāt think youāll be disappointed David. The commentary team ( Alexandre Pasteur, Laurent Jalabert, Marion Rousse, Thomas Voeckler, Yoann Offredo et autres) is first class. And the photography from motos and helicopters, as well as some exciting on-board-bike shots, is excellent.
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Thank you I will be looking forward to it.
And also congratulations for resisting the temptation āis first classā to convert āThe commentary teamā to the plural.
Just one of my foibles. 
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I used to be a technical authorā¦
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The TDF came through our village last year. We were outside with the neighbors and various other locals and I recorded the ITV4 live footage. As the leaders were just about to turn the corner about 200m from us just at the entry sign to the village, they had an add break. When the ad break finished, all the riders had cleared the village. Bugger 
Iām pretty sure you can watch a stage on replay on France tĆ©lĆ©visionsā¦ Maybe next time!
that sounds fascinatingā¦
I used to ātranslateā/proof-read for our Finance/Personnel Directorā¦ that was my punishment for casually mentioning to him that I didnāt think many of the workforce would actually understand ā¦ his various notices/instructions/whateverā¦
I confessed that I certainly found some of it hard-goingā¦ 
He was a rotter and sentenced me to read all his drivelā¦ not to correct the punctuation/spellingā¦ he had his secretary for thatā¦
rather, I had to put it all into simple laymanās languageā¦ which meant that, first of all, I had to figure out what on earth he was trying to sayā¦ aaargh.
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More or less what happened here half an hour ago. I had one eye on the tv and the other way down in the valley to a short gap in the trees. I missed the Tete there but saw the Peloton go through and then watched most of the progress through our village and the next one. Didnāt see anyone in my friendsā garden, they were right on the route, and then saw a few wavers from the parking of my old employer, Gauthier, with all the green and white wagons in the background. I wonder if he got them all back in time. Didnāt manage it with me 23 years ago, I sat out my first Bastille day in my cab on the pavement of a small village in the NE. 
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Discovery+ shows it without advertising breaks in the UK, but I think it requires a specific subscription. My sister is over for a few days to combine a trip seeing me with a few days following the Tour, and watches it on Discovery+ for uninterrupted viewing.
We went to see the finish in Bordeaux yesterdayā¦ Lots of standing around thenā¦ whooshā¦ they zoomed past. If you blinked, you missed it!
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A resumĆ©ā¦
EDIT I found myself cheering, as I watched this videoā¦
and now Iām exhaustedā¦
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Absolutely gutted forā¦ Mark Cavendish who, riding his last tour this year, only requires one more stage win to beat Eddy Merckxās record of 34 stage wins. Incredibly considering his age he came within a few seconds of breaking the record yesterday in Bordeaux. It wasnāt obvious when watching it live but seeing the race highlights on TV it was clear that he suffered a slipped gear just at the worst possible moment, meaning his sprint was unsuccessful. Today, however, his tour - which heās said will be his last ever one - is over after crashing and breaking his collarbone.
I canāt help but think thereās going to be a Netflix special all about Mark Cavendish in the next few years. Itās been an incredible achievement. Such a shame it all ended so abruptly. But he should be immensely proud of what heās achieved, and happy that heās been so respected by fans and riders alike from all around the world.
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Hi Stella,
What you describe is pretty much what I used to do - interpret! I wrote user manuals alongside expert software developers who were very proud of their s/w, but not at all good at explaining what it was for and how to use it. I worked on user documentation for various companies, for internal procedures end-user documentation. It was an interesting job, seeing what goes on from the inside of various businesses, large and small.
It irks me to see many present day user guides that look comprehensive at first sight, but simply list every button and function of a device, leaving you none the wiser about how it actually works.
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Absolutely. Not sure heāll be completely thrilled by all the current stars like Tadej Pogacar talking about how he inspired them when they were little kids!
Heās already been offered a contract for 2024, so maybe not the end of the story despite his age.
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Oh cool, wasnāt aware of that. Fingers crossed 