Tour de France 2007: The publicity caravan Part II

Most of these photos were taken near the
summit ofCol d'Aubisque. I waited for two nights before seeing any kind of
actions like the race or caravan so I felt like taking pictures of the publicity
caravan. The weather was just gorgeous.

Other pictures were taken at the Stage 4 start.

Normally, you can't see these cars and parade unless you go visit the
actual caravan parade. I am posting the pictures for those who were not
able to be there. So enjoy!

I did not take pictures but actually there is a kind of "pre-caravan" caravan.
It consists of Aquarel trucks and some other cars which I don't remember
at the moment. The Aquarel trucks give us "L'Eaufficiel de la Caravane'"
but not water bottles. What is "L'Eaufficiel de la Caravane"?. It is a paper.
(pictures will be added here later)
Usually about 30 minutes after this pre-caravan cars, the real caravan arrived.


So this is the beginning of publicity caravan.

1. ASO caravan. Nothing fancy. Just a yellow truck with a huge megaphone
on it.

The publicity caravan is led by TdF organizer's car. Unfortunately, they
don't give out any stuff. They are not popular. I suppose the object on the
back of the truck is a megaphone to announce the arrival of the caravan.


2. The LCL caravan. The TT man and the stuffed lion buggy, which lead
the Beetles can be seen in Part I.
I learned to decipher the French license plates. The last two numbers
indicate the prefecture number. Here 87 means that this Audi is
registered in Haute-Vienne in Limousin.

One thing I did not get was these LCL baseball cap. I was always wearing
Team CSC cap and I realized, rather belatedly, that was why they did not
give me that cap.

Pictures taken at Stage 4 start. As you can see, there were a lot of
Beetles.

The time-trial man is presented by LCL. The puppet is followed by the
stuffed line buggy and a lot of yellow new Beetles. The girls sitting in the
Beetles give LCL goods.

You can see the stuffed lion buggy in the Part I.

LCL goods: (to be pictured and uploaded here, LCL caps and bags)


3. The SeaFrance caravan.

Who said, "Love boat"?

The "SEA FRANCE" boat. The ferry on the mountain top. Noah's Ark?

The boat is followed by these Dover - Calais mobiles. Those girls whose

torso is out of the roof are scattering the goods.


SeaFrance goods: (ditto, a ball-point pen)

4. Journal de Mickey caravan. The Mickey caravan or should I say Disney caravan?
What were they promoting? I still don't know.

Mickey goods: (pictures will be added, some leaflets?)


5. Gel Douche Fa caravan. Simply put, the Fa caracan. Gel Douche means, I
think, shower soup in French.

They are "Fa" mobiles.

The Fa truck features the shower man and the tropical theme.


This is the front view of the truck. I am more intrigued by the yellow
pins worn by those two people. Do you know what I mean?

What are they? They (pins) seems like yellow jersey pins. These people
were LCL VIPs?

Another Fa mobile.



FA goods: (ditto, miniature Fa products)


6. The Skoda caravan.
The Skoda Octavia.

The Skoda Fabia.

The Skoda mobile. The Skoda caravan featured a lot of Skoda Fabias and
Octavias.

Skoda goods: (ditto, those ubiquitous Skoda hats and miniature model cars)


7. Les Cadets Juniors caravan???? Where were they? I did not notice them.


8. The Dr. Oetker Ristorante caravan.

Dr. Oetker's Ristorante Pizzas. This strange automobile is supposed to
a table with a fluffy table cloth with pizzas on top at a romantic candle
light dinner.

This truck carries a table with pizzas. Candle light is also the key element.

The girl is handing out a folding fan.

She can be the same girl who appears in the previous photo.

Dr. Oetker goods: (ditto)


9. The T-Mobile caravan.

The T-Mobile cars in pink (Magenta in German). They came in a pair,
two Audis. The license number indicates that this car is registered in
Ingolstadt (Donau).

T-mobile goods: (ditto, caps and inflatables)