Two weeks in South­west­ern France. All footage was shot by Jon Bryant sim­ply using a Canon 7D. You can also watch the video direct­ly on Vimeo here.

Via @brainpicker.

A hun­dred years ago, the orga­niz­ers of the Tour de France took rid­ers high into moun­tains for the very first time. And, from there, the mys­tique of the Tour de France grew and grew. To com­mem­o­rate this occa­sion, a group of mod­ern day rid­ers retraced the same route through the Pyre­nees, which includes some leg­endary climbs: the Col de Peyre­sourde, the Col d’Aspin, the Col du Tour­malet, the Col du Soulor, etc. The weath­er con­di­tions are slight­ly tough for these rid­ers, but their bikes are light and mod­ern, and the gear­ing much more for­giv­ing than what their fore­bears had. Mean­while the film doc­u­ment­ing their ride is a plea­sure to watch. The run­time is about 15 min­utes.

via @vimeo

This week, the US cel­e­brat­ed its inde­pen­dence. And so it’s per­haps fit­ting to head into the week­end with John Wayne, an Amer­i­can icon, recit­ing and inter­pret­ing the Pledge of Alle­giance. Long live the Duke…

Find more vin­tage audio and video in our col­lec­tion of Cul­tur­al Icons.

So beau­ti­ful you don’t need sound or com­men­tary. Now added to our YouTube Favorites.

via 3QuarksDaily

HT Mike