THE TOUR DE FRANCE

The Tour de France is a great sporting event (more on that another time). But it - and the other Grand Tours of Italy and Spain - are also wonderful adverts for their countries' tourist industries. For three weeks pictures fill the screen of idyllic mountain villages, beautiful fields, famous castles and cathedrals, local shops and cafes. If you want to see France, then the best way to see it is probably to become a professional cyclist.

It is estimated that up to 3 million people watch the Tour in situ as it passes by. And many of them make a lot of effort to promote their locality and region. My favourite this year was a construction built by some local farmers in the middle of a wheatfield. They had made a huge bicycle out of straw bales, and the wheels were groups of tractors driving round in a circle. More bales spelt out the message "we the farmers of Brittany enjoy feeding you".

OK, you would have needed a helicopter to see it (though the Tour also has a couple of those). But I admired the amount of effort that would have been needed for something which was seen so fleetingly.

Walter Blotscher