Well the big day has arrived and we now head south to view the Alps stages of the Tour de France!

First stop ... the TGV.



The TGV is so efficient. It only takes three hours to travel Paris to Marseille. If only finding the car hire place to pick up our camper van was as easy. We took a bus from Marseille to Les Chaubauds and pretty much found ourselves in the middle of nowhere.

Following lots of phone calls and asking directions off any random person we could find we finally locate the car hire place. Prior to coming to Marseille I was warned about the local equivalent of "Island Time". Well these warnings did not prepare us for what we to experience. It took 3 hours to get our camper van. The silver lining was being able to meet a family from the UK and Sweden who also were starting their Tour de France adventures. We also quickly learnt that if we were to see the Tour in Gap we may not be able to get onto Alpe d'Huez. Alpe d'Huez is THE stage and the one we set our sites on. So with this information we chose to not do the Gap stage,

After enduring crazy heat and the long 3 hour wait we were ready to hit the road. Next stop ... the supermarket.



Thanks to Southern France efficiency we would not make Alpe d'Huez in daylight. So we teamed up with our new Sweddish friends and headed for Gap. The aim head to Gap and stay overnight before heading to Alpe d'Huez the following day.

We roll into Gap late at night and find a vacant truck stop to park and setup camp.