In Gay Paris

Okay, so we're in Paris and have found more internet!
We arrived yesterday (Friday) in the late afternoon and oh my god - DO NOT DRIVE A MOTORHOME AROUND THE ARC DE TRIUMPH!! (pardon the spelling). It was absloutely crazy, an enormous roundabout that admits of perhaps eight lanes though none are marked - vehicles come from all directions to cross in all directions!
We have met up with Christian, Ali and Sara and Arna and Alex are at present with Nick and Caroline. The Aussi contingent is now grouped!
We have been travelling around the French countryside which is absolutely beautiful, the French Alps and Provence particularly are awesome - picture postcard villages with narrow main streets and shutters on all the windows; we stayed for a night by a lake, swimming in the 36 degree heat whilst viewing the snow topped alps.
We met up with Phil and Sue in Nice but we had not been there long before Sue's bag was stolen from under her feet - goodbye passport. Unfortunately they then had to cancel the trip to Italy we were to take and go back to Paris to get another passport.
Arna and I rode our bikes a couple of times - once through the Alps from just outside Briançon (the highest city in Europe) for around 30km of descents in the 13 and 12%!!! I screamed out loud coming down through hairpin turns with both brakes on - awesome.
We also rode from Nice to Cannes; again around 30km of coastal road. Beach wise, Nice has stones, like river stones and you have to wear your shoes right down to the water; some people weren't bothered and we lying on their towels on the rocks. But Cannes! Sand, kiosks, topless women (I put that in for the benefit of the blokes for Jason and Alex were in heaven!)and the water is so much warmer and saltier and they don't have sharks at all - best swim in the ocean I've ever had.
Jason and I went out on the town in Aix en Provence (pronounced ex, like the letter x); we drank at a pub where the bartender clocked me as Australian as he'd spent some years in New Zealand, though born in Poland, lived in other places - I think he spoke about four languages which was handy. After the pub closed we had a postcard moment when we went down the road to a club - the doors were closed over and then a small sliding at eye level came open and we were checked out by the doorman before being allowed to enter. The place was jumping; a live band (they LOVE reggae in France!) and heaps of people; it was really fun and the first time we'd gotten to really go out in a decent sized place.
Today we went to the cemetry and paid our hommages to Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde and all that - really amazing monuments and graves. There is a permanent security guard stationed at Jim's grave - they've cleaned up all the graffiti and fenced it off and the bust of his head that used to be there is long gone.
Tonight we plan to climb the Eiffel tower and tomorrow we will watch the Tour come down the Champs Elysee and somewhere in there too we will fit in the Louvre etc. There is so much to do and I hope we get through it all!
After Paris we do not have any fixed engagements so perhaps to WWI country in Northern France, thence to Amsterdam, Germany and who knows shere else - we have three weeks before heading back to the UK.
Sorry I've not had time to email - the pressure is on in these cafes and progress still somewhat impeded by the strange keyboard. I hope you are all well.
Au Revoir, mon amie!
xx