It's a spa town.

Thanks for that, Dani. I'm grateful to you.

(Note to self: Never assume).

Mind you: many of the wealthy visitors to the waters and other entertainments no doubt made their money from textiles and the like.

I looked it up and apparently, after a bit of a decline after the first world war it got its second wind as an administrative centre during the second world war, with lots of government offices evacuated there from London.

As promised, the Tour de France hit Otley with a great big French oui today.
I was out and about early, because my chat problème wanted and demanded his usual cat-milk breakfast, which I had stupidly run out of.

So.
Couple of shots of closed roads and empty supermarket carpark.
The shop was open but inaccessible to cars (the two in the picture must have been there since before 05.00). Shop consequently empty of the usual Saturday shoppers. Good news for me of course.

The Bowling Green which I think was open.
No-one outside at that time of day, hard to tell.

Oh and it was definitely still raining at gone 05.00, hence the wet streets.
Dry by 08.00 though.

Some hardy souls had already staked a pitch by the side of the road.

The large screen in the Market Square earlier in the day.
Great for people from outside the area who wanted to be in the middle of things, and great for those without a TV!

Her Maj was happy to stay inside the office downstairs from me.

Great town Sundae!

I came back from my cat-milk mission to shower, change and have a wee.
Back out for the passing of Le Caravane (Cellar post).

People were watching from every possible vantage point.

The sun was out by then.
And the crazy Canucks.

So having watched them set off on screen I went back home briefly.
Photos from my front room window, up and down the street.
Was back in place for the actual Tour to come through although I got no useable photos - didn't honestly expect to.

It was more about the sheer pleasure of the day.
Feeling like a part of something I have followed for years.
And still being able to eat and drink at home and go for a wee when I wanted to :D

From beginning to end the crowd cheered everything that went past.
Police on motorbikes, ambulances, Tour cars.
A huge roar went up when the Yorkshire Tea vehicle came through as part of le caravane, and an even larger one when McCains Chips came through. And then we all dissolved in laughter at the idea of cheering a promotional chip-van. They weren't even throwing out freebies! Although given my experience with the inflatable pillow from Ibis Budget hotels I think that was just as well.

I felt like crying sometimes. The crowd mood was so positive and everyone - even when they were asking eachother daft questions I longed to respond to - felt involved. People here don't even need to be asked if they are proud of being English (although they are Yorkshire first, English second).

When the national anthem played on screen in the Market Square as part of the opening ceremony, people joined in spontaneously. This is not British at all, at least not my experience of it. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had previously been applauded - for being on TV, not for being in front of us. When Otley was mentioned as being part of the route there was another cheer.

People wanted to clap and cheer and whistle and shout, and anything would do and did.
People had their faces painted, silly hats on, damn near every person had some yellow on somewhere. It was like being back at the London Olympics.

Dad is in very poor health at the moment.
I am so very worried about him, and not being able to go back because of work and finances and because I have to accept I've moved away. This morning was a blessed release from all forms of worry and I deliberately put everything out of my mind for a few hours.

Thanks, hon.
I didn't reply in the other thread as I saw you'd made your way here.

What am I going to do now the town isn't Tour-crazy?
It will be weird.
Y'all have to start visiting to cheer me up.

My old friend and co-worker, from like 10-15 years ago, was just reporting on the Tour going through her town on Facebook! and I was like WTF!!! I didn't even know you moved north, and apparently you've moved very close to where my e-friend has moved.

Harrowgate I think. I'm just checking.

Harrogate. Yes. How about that, ten miles away.

The internet shrinks the world!

Attached is a BBC link which includes a photo from someone far more handy with a camera than I am (credit: Holly Crabtree - not copying the photo just in case) showing the Tour going through Otley.
Okay it's the other side of town to me, but it shows what I saw going past in very similar surroundings, and that the people out to cheer were not simply an anomaly.

2.5m people were estimated to have turned out over the weekend.
And there is another Stage in England to go tomorrow.
Pretty amazing given that the estimate for the whole Tour is 12m spectators during 22 days riding. Okay - have to be fair and say that most of the route is much more sparsely populated!
Damn I wish I had a TV. Nothing compares to watching the Tour in terms of geography, countryside, tactics and blood sweat and gears. Or at least nothing legal and televised. And it goes on for so long you can afford to just catch up on highlights some days when you really have to do things like earning a living. Or time trials.