It’s the day before the start of the 1954 Tour de France and Amsterdam is in party mode. The Tour circus is in town. Funfairs have sprung up all over the city and thousands of people are on the streets. Squares are full of market stalls and organ music. Cars displaying the exotic names of French newspapers, television and radio stations are on the roads. The city’s youth are crowded around the advertising trucks of large French companies.
In the words of the Dutch daily , today Amsterdam has ‘a somewhat Latin atmosphere’. Tonight the shops and bars and cafes will do a roaring trade as they stay
