"They just don't understand Irish signals," sighed a garda outside Dungarvan Sports Centre as yet another foreign press car ignored his helpful beckoning.
The town provided a perfect pitstop for the press corps following (or rather, preceding) le Tour. They refuelled on the finest of west Waterford's local food products and on barbecued Irish beef and lamb, as costumed young step dancers performed against the resplendent backdrop of the harbour waters.
This was the only official press stop of the Tour's Irish stages, and early yesterday morning there was still some uncertainty about how many of the huge press contingent would pause in their dash to Cork.
In the event, the scores who did stop in Dungarvan enjoyed an ideal introduction to the best of the Irish table. The sun shone on the newly mown lawns, even though the rising wind which plagued the cyclists also threatened at times to sweep the entire outdoor display into the harbour.
From the Cappoquin area there were Knockanore and Knockalara farmhouse cheeses, Crinnaghtaun apple juice and Barron's homebaked bread. Dungarvan Bay oysters and Youghal smoked salmon blended perfectly with Guinness on tap.
The overseas press, deprived of nourishment since their hurried 5 a.m. breakfast, tucked in with a will. Avonmore, now amalgamated with Waterford Foods, sponsored this showcase of Irish produce, and An Bord Bia had five local chefs to do the cooking.
A group of Dutch and Belgian journalists reminisced about their pre-Tour familiarisation visit to the area last February, when they were exposed to Irish hospitality in a well-known hostelry on the Youghal road - "We remember the music, only the music," they admitted. "We don't remember the bar."
As on all other sections of the route through the south-east, there was a huge public turnout in Dungarvan. People craned from skylight windows, climbed onto walls and flat roofs and brought chairs and stepladders out to get a better vantage point.
A nun perched on the gates of St Mary's Church. Mrs Mary Bridget Breen sat in her wheelchair, muffled from head to toe against the biting wind. "I love sport," she said.
Rory Wiley, president of Dungarvan Credit Union Cycling Club, arrived on his racing bike. Touching 70 years of age, he had completed the Enniscorthy to Cork route cycle organised a week previously, although recovering from a fractured hip and other injuries sustained in a fall late last year.
Dungarvan, he pointed out, was the location of the first cycle club in Ireland, and also claims to have been the site, in 1869, of the first cycle race for a Challenge Cup held in these islands - and possibly in the world. The trophy presented for this four-mile race on penny-farthing machines was unearthed in a local priory 15 years ago and is now displayed in the town's museum.
Along with the rest of Co Waterford, Dungarvan was recovering from the celebrations that followed the Munster Hurling Final draw. "What would it have been like if we won?["] mused one of many locals nursing sore heads.
As it was, the blue-and-white banners almost outnumbered the French and Irish flags. The scale of the sporting weekend in the county was summed up in one big banner stretched over a newsagents' shop: "Semple Stadium Sunday, Tour de France Monday," it said.
With the Tour running almost an hour late, the good-humoured crowds waited patiently on the streets, grateful that the sunshine held out. When the tight-packed body of cyclists swept into the square and through the town in a matter of seconds, the excitement peaked in a burst of cheering.
Then the barriers were taken down, the bands took over the viewing stand, and Dungarvan's doughty citizens launched into yet another afternoon and evening of partying.