The 21 stages will take 200 riders from Noirmoutier, just off Nantes, to Paris on a clockwise route with a short visit to Germany.
BBC: SPORT | Other Sport | Cycling | Tour bosses announce 2005 route
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Traditionally, every fall along the marshes of Noirmoutier, a tiny island on the French coast, young women would gently rake a thin, white film that forms atop the water.