The Tour and the fire: Catalonia from the air

Sunday, the initial stages of the Tour de France crossing Catalonia offered us magnificent images of the country. Beyond the sporting competition and the bicycle race speeding along the roads, the Tour has a very attractive tourist aspect. Always, the landscapes adjacent to the race, especially those shown to us by television from a bird's-eye view, are captivating. Bell towers, castles, small churches, and little villages are discovered, tracing a tempting route to visit. Everything seems more beautiful. This time, exceptionally, it was our towns and cities. We saw the church of Cubelles, the beaches of Calafell and Vilanova, Olèrdola Castle, and a spectacular Sitges, with the houses on the promenade and the Cau Ferrat. Magnificent was Viladecans' initiative to draw a large bicycle with the town's name on a ploughed field to assert itself internationally. Sant Feliu de Llobregat Cathedral, from the air, gains presence. The Walden of Sant Just with people on the balconies is impressive. We saw Cervelló Castle, Colònia Güell, and Pedralbes Monastery. Barcelona unfolded before views of Tibidabo, and immediately the city's major tourist hits: Camp Nou, La Pedrera, Barcelona Cathedral, and Santa Caterina Market. With the award ceremony, they showed us the splendid views from the Fabra Observatory with the emblematic grid of the Eixample and the Mediterranean on the horizon. From the sky, the viewpoint is so epic that everything seems better. Even the industrial estates of Baix Llobregat do not have such an inhospitable appearance. The staging of the Tour is delicate and sensitive to the environment. The host's desire to please the payer is evident. The dizzying pace of the Tour has allowed us to see a kind of miniature Catalonia, where you review part of the country at a glance, which can be crossed at a speed to which the train has not accustomed us. The green of the vegetation and the colors of the crops in summer disguised a heat that is not noticeable on television. Collserola looked lush and fresh above the city.But on Telenotícies vespre the panorama changed. Catalonia from the air became tragic and distressing. A TV3 team boarded a Rural Agents helicopter to fly over the trail of the fire in the Gavarres massif. A gray landscape. The green tapestry turned black, showing viewers the extent and perimeter of the fire. Some of the burned houses were also visible, as well as patches of land that, incredibly, resisted the flames. From the air, all the technical language of the firefighters when explaining the geographical evolution of the fire is better understood.The distance that the gaze from the sky gives us shows the country in a much clearer, simpler way. The perspective also becomes much more epic and exciting. It must be for this reason that images, whether majestic or tragic, become hypnotic.