It’s that time of year again to live the drama of the Tour de France. In honor of today’s rest day we watched Louis Malles’s 1962 short film Vive Le Tour. Absolutment wonderful! This brief film gives great insight into the race — the eccentricities (riders raiding roadside bars for beers and stuffing them into their shirt back pockets), the pain (crashes, emergency airlifts, straggling riders being pushed up the mountains), a section devoted to the doping issues of the day (amphetamines) and the compulsion to ride. Devoid of the usual heroics, it’s a human and often humorous portrait of this great and grueling race.