I was originally going to post this Friday morning but due to recent events in Nice it didn’t feel right.

Thousands of people gathered for another big event yesterday, the 14th of july ( Bastille Day ). The cyclists from Tour de France departed for another destination. The beginning point was set up in the city centre of Montpellier.

I was excited to be there and photograph. But I was not interested in the cyclists or the promotional and advertising campaigns that took over the city centre about 2 hours before the start. In fact, I could not care less about Tour de France… (sorry cycling fans). I was there to capture the craze around it…

Being in a big crowd of people gave me an advantage to become more invisible and not draw attention. I blended in. I walked around at the back, dived in the thick of it, walked along, back and forth, just photographing anything that interested me. Just another tourist with a camera…

In the first hours of the morning, there were probably a few hundreds of people, not more. Quite a lot of families and die-hard Tour de France fans have gathered all along the barriers.

Then there was the wait. For about two hours TV presenters were shouting into microphones and asking some questions. The winners would win prizes…

 

Some guys in sports costumes were running around and throwing some freebies into the crowd. This will go on and on… I kept on mingling up and down. I was in the zone…

 

I didn’t mean to be a killjoy. I wasn’t shooting to humiliate or make fun of anyone. I was enjoying this, seeing and creating the moments that caught my attention. It just happens to be that I’m not into Tour de France so I looked where most people on this day did not. A huge plateau full of characters was in front of my eyes.

 

 

Before we knew it, the cyclists took off, the music stopped, people started to head back…

Thank you for stopping by. Till very soon

Yuri