Le Tour de France in Yorkshire

Over the past months, there has been a huge hype about Le Tour de France coming to Yorkshire, especially for those of us who live in this fine county.

We ventured out with some friends of ours to just north of Skipton to watch the events unfold...

...there was a random guy dressed as a chicken riding a tiny bike whilst his mates ran alongside him...

...we found a spot where we could sit on the side of the road...

...it was Jennie's birthday so the whole crowds sung "Happy Birthday" to her...

...we were all watching and waiting for the cyclists...

...with our flags from Morrison's...

...then the bikes came past pretty quick...

...then we hung out in Skipton at the big screen to watch the rest.

...all around it was a great day out.   :)

A day out in Skipton

Skipton is a beautiful market town on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. It holds many memories from my childhood and in more recent years as well, especially as it was where my husband made his marriage proposal!

Skipton

The Leeds-Liverpool Canal runs directly through the town centre and in many respects the town is built up around the canal...

The signpost shows the way along the canal

...but it was whilst floating on the canal in one of these lovely barges about 3 years ago that Luke popped the question whilst we were eating lunch, "Do you want some Marmite with that?", this was followed by a marmite tin appearing from his pocket with a very special ring inside of it.

Rosie was the boat Luke proposed on

In case your wondering I did say "Yes" and as the saying goes, the rest is history.

Today we visited with my younger brother and his girlfriend, we had to relive some childhood memories, of buying a pork pie from Stanforth's butchers and then going to sit by the canal to eat it. 

As we were eating the pies I was watching this beautiful bee busy pollinating some blackberry flowers.

Bees pollinating blackberry bush

Another thing we had to do was walk along the canal towpath to Aireville Park to play a game of pitch & putt (AKA mini golf). To follow great family tradition, I lost the game but it was still great fun.

A Lord of the Rings barge

As we walked alongside the canal we saw a barge named 'Lord of the Rings', which brought back memories of our Lord of the Rings adventures in New Zealand this time last year.