Thinking about watching the Tour de France end in Paris next year? It’s impressive, fun - and easy. All you need to do is choose a spot, and dedicate the better part of a day to waiting.

Arrive by 10am if you want a front row seat. The bottom of the Champs-Elysées is reserved for ticketed spectators, but the upper Champs, or Rue de Rivoli near the Tuileries are good spots to watch, as the riders pass several times.

Some fans come with folding chairs, though I didn’t. I carried a small backpack with camembert on a baguette, a water bottle, camera, chocolate to share with neighbors (it never hurts to make friends in a crowd), and sun screen.

The pageantry started mid-afternoon, with the arrival of the Junior Riders circuit. Next came the caravan.

The parade is sponsored by the official tour services, and a hoot: brightly painted cars, trucks and floats weave back and forth across the avenue, their drivers chanting, blasting music and air horns, spraying water into the crowd.

Finally, the riders. Passage is fast and furious, and nothing prepares you. Get ready to scan the fleeting masses of steel and sweat, looking for blocks of color, and numbered jerseys. You hear wheels on pavement, shouts Allez! Allez! And then they’re gone.

To get good photos you need to have an angled view - meaning see the riders as they approach. With a crush of people behind and beside me, I couldn’t turn.

Many solved this problem by holding their cameras, blindly, into the street toward the approaching riders. The cameras would capture what they couldn’t yet see.

I found the best way to freeze the frame was to hold my camera as if I were watching, and video the riders passing. But mostly I just tried to look, listen and absorb each time the riders passed.

The race ends at Place de la Concorde around 6pm - but diehard fans stick around. Riders are photographed after the awards ceremonies in front of the Arc de Triomphe. Then the avenue becomes a big block party.