Puls of the population
By Dino Trumić
Saint Pourçain sur Sioule is a little comune in the department of Allier in Auvergne, France. This place will be the place of depart for a 14th stage of the world’s biggest cycling race :The Tour de France in its centenary. Saint Pourçain sur Sioule candidated for this honor for five years and now they have their chance to be a part of the show. Only two times the caravane of Tour de France passed through this place and this will be the first time that Saint Pourçain sur Sioule will host depart of one Tour stage. As a part of the project that is organized by association « On the footsteps of Albert Londres » we were out in St Pourçain sur Sioule to see from « first row » what does this honor means to people here. We visited few places in Saint Pourçain sur Sioule and we get some interesting views from people.
In local Antics shop we spoke with a lady who works there, about Tour de France and what does it mean for people and their work. She told us that she doesn’t watch the Tour but she’s aware of the importance of the occasion. She also shared with us the fact that this one day won’t affect her work and that all things are the same so it won’t change that much in her life.
So as we continued to look for different views we came to the Hotel Restaurant Le chêne vert where the owner of the place gave us some really honest view. He told that it is a wonderful occasion because the Tour de France is the greatest race in the world but he also stated that it is just one day. He said that Saint Pourçain sur Sioule will be on the map for few hours and when the caravane departs it will be the same as ever. He stated that people have to work everyday so that they could enjoy same thing always not just one day in the year not just when Tour stage departs.
Next stop for us was Le club, a Pub where the waitress showed us some genuine joy regarding Tour de France depart from St Pourçain-sur-Sioule. She said that she watches the Tour regularly and that she is very lucky with the great Saturday occasion. In Le club they printed special T-shirts for Saturday July 13th and they will rise to the occasion.
So in our outing we found out that the feelings of people in this comune are mixed regarding first Tour stage depart from this place. But no matter what general conclusion is that it is a great honor and occasion that will really promote this beautiful place.
