What a great day! Did a visit to the Louvre and later Monmartre. Didier's list of Louvre must sees. One tip, get to the Louvre when doors open to see the Mona Lisa ... it gets crazy busy during the morning and until close. Mona LisaThe Winged Victory of Samothrace.Statue of Saint Mary Magdalen.Slave by MichaelangeloHorses of Marly The arvo we headed up to Sacre Coeur and Monmartre, The Sacre Coeur church is beautiful, especially the interior. For those ...

We rolled into Gap at 1am. Pretty happy to escape the Alpe d'Huez madness and traffic. We found the truck stop we used a few days ago. We are up at 7am and make an early start back to Marseille. We had some initial fun and games in Gap cleaning our toilet and draining our grey water. We make good progress despite occasionally taking wrong turns and hit the car hire place at 10:30. Our train back to Paris leaves at 3:40pm and so we were very keen to avoid the 1...

Well the big day has arrived! The Tour will be climbing the Alpe d'Huez not once but TWICE. The atmosphere on the mountain today is electric. Everyone is excited and there is lots of activity. We start by visiting the finish area, the place is a zoo. It is only 9:30am and already people have taken the prime spots around the arrival area. Considering the riders will only make Alpe d'Huez at 4:30-5pm a 9:30am camp out seems excessive. We decide to walk from th...

Well another day and another law enforcement agency to deal with! You know that great campsite we found yesterday, well it seems it is in fact a service centre for the Alp d'Huez council trucks and we of course should not be parked in there. We spent sometime talking to the council worker and the Municipal Police. After some negotiation we were allowed to stay. What a relief. With 3000 camper vans on the mountain, the chances of finding a spot so close to...

We arrived at Gap late the previous night in pitch black, so we were pleasantly surprised when we saw the stunning views that surrounded us in the morning. The Alps are simply spectacular, especially for us Australians in Western Sydney. We are very fortunate to have some great travel companions in Thomas and Helena from Sweden. They like us are organised and don't mess about on the road. Thomas has been to the Tour 10 years ago and camped on Alpe d'Huez. Thi...