My wife and I planning to watch the Tour de France for the first time at Alpe d'huez. We're both realistic and expect the place to be a total zoo - but still worth the stress.

Does anyone have 'any' advice that could make our trip as smooth as possible? For example, where to park, where to station ourselves, best time to arrive, etc.

I know the road gets filled-up pretty early, but I can't leave work until Thursday morning - so we should arrive in the early afternoon - assuming traffic isn't horrible.

Thanks!